December 16, 2005

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Thousands honor Virgin of Guadalupe

By Jack Smith ecember 12 was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an event unmarked and unrecognized by secular society, but one celebrated by tens of thousands of local Catholics with the same enthusiasm and devotion of any great holiday.

In churches throughout the Americas and in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Dec. 9 and 12, Catholics retraced the steps and retold the story of Juan Diego and the miraculous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

On Dec. 9, 1531, a native Mexican laborer who had taken the Christian name, Juan Diego, was walking to Mass when he heard his name called. He walked up the hill, called Tepeyac, where the voice was coming from and beheld a woman who looked like an Aztec princess.

She called herself the “Mother of the True God” and asked that a shrine be built in her honor.

When told about the message, the local bishop demanded proof. When he later visited the hilltop again at the request of the woman who had also miraculously cured his dying uncle, Juan found beautiful roses growing in the frozen ground. Bundling them in his cloak, Juan brought the flowers to the bishop. When Juan opened his cloak, the bishop saw the miraculous image, now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Many miracles have been ascribed to Our Lady under the name of the Virgin of Guadalupe and her image is now housed in a Basilica on the site where she appeared to Juan Diego near Mexico City. Tests by numerous scientists over the years have failed to explain how the image was made or what it is even composed of.

The image of Our Lady appearing as an Aztec woman superceding the symbols of the Aztec deities, along with the persistent witness of Juan Diego, resulted in the baptism of nine million native Mexicans in only ten years. Our Lady of Guadalupe is now not only the Patroness of Mexico, but the Patroness of all the Americas and her shrine is the second most visited church in the world after St. Peter’s and the Vatican. Pope John Paul II had great devotion to her, visiting the Shrine four times in his pontificate, beatifying and canonizing Juan Diego and erecting a shrine to her in St. Peter’s.

D

Catholics pray in the small chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE, page 6

Human rights must be respected, pope says in World Peace Day message

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Even in the midst of war, basic human rights must be respected and all parties involved must work to end hostilities, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for World Peace Day 2006.

International humanitarian law is “binding on all

peoples” even in times of war, he said in his message for the Jan. 1 day of prayer.

Pope Benedict’s message, “In Truth, Peace,” was released Dec. 13 at the Vatican.

The pope began his message, which is distributed to heads of state around the world, by offering his best wish-

es to all people of good will, “especially those who are suffering as a result of violence and armed conflict.”

“My greeting is one filled with hope for a more serene world, a world in which more and more individuals and communities are committed to the paths of justice and peace,” Pope Benedict wrote.

WORLD PEACE DAY, page 3

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION News-in-brief . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 Immigration issues. . . . . . . . 8

Fourth Sunday of Advent Dec. 18

Scripture and Reflection

Vatican II Anniversary Part 2

~ Page 15 ~ ~ Pages 18-19 ~

C.S. Lewis on ‘Xmas’ . . . . . 10 Christmas Liturgies. . . . 11-14 Commentary & Letters . . 16-17 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Catholic imagination. . . . . . 21

www.catholic-sf.org December 16, 2005

SIXTY CENTS

VOLUME 7

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No. 39

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

On The Where You Live

by Tom Burke Our Lady of the Pillar Parish will commemorate the season and help us on our way into it with its annual Live Nativity Scene beginning December 21st and continuing on various dates through Feast of the Epiphany. The recreation of the first O Holy Night is sponsored by the parish Knights of Columbus, said Mel Schwing. Mel has been in charge of the event since its beginnings 18 years ago. “We were one of the first,” Mel told me. Parishioners take the roles of Mary, Joseph, and the Wise Men, with others forming an ensemble of carolers awaiting the Prince of Peace. Live animals bring the picture even closer to home. See Datebook.…Much to celebrate at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral where Lynn and Tony O’Sullivan are married 50 years December 3rd and Paulist Father Chuck Kullmann, pastor, was 55 years old November 27th. In October, OSM thanked volunteers at its Sacristan Desk including Suzette Williams, Barbara DeLucca, Jennie Chew and Maria de Perio. “You have been a big help,” the parish said…. Just up and around the corner, it’s a fond farewell to Salesian Father John Lam at St. Peter and Paul Parish where he has served for the last 15 years. The priest will now minister in Los Angeles but not before going-away festivities January 7th at a nearby restaurant. “We love you Father Lam,” a recent bulletin said…. At St. Rita’s in Fairfax, it’s Happy 90th Birthday to longtime parish-

It was almost 30 years later for the class of ’77 from St. Stephen Elementary School when almost 40 of the group met at the home of classmate Kathleen Dowling McDonough. “Everyone had a great time and was very happy to reconnect with their old cougar pals,” Kathleen said. “People just seemed to pick up right where they left off 27 years ago.” Michael Perrott, left, Jim Mosman, Steve Kearney, Katherine Petrin and Jerry Murphy were among the revelers.

ioner and now Nazareth House resident, Bud McDevitt. A reception hosted by Bud’s son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Paulette, marked his entry into his nonagenarian years. Thanks to Mary Parnow, who has been a friend of Bud’s for nigh onto 50 years, for the good news. Always remembered are Mary’s husband, Ed, and Bud’s wife, Dolores, who are now deceased.

By the way, Bud has pretty decent company on his natal day as October 4th is also the feast of St. Francis of Assisi…. A tip of the musical scales to members of the Boys and Girls Choir at St. Mary’s Cathedral who were recently presented with the prized Bishop’s Chorister Award by Bishop John C. Wester, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese. All of the recognized

Archbishop Riordan High School welcomed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in October. While there, the mayor took some time reviewing Physics with teacher Mark Shalz and seniors including Jiro Bantay, left, and John De Los Angeles.

Margaret Purcell-Briskin, principal, Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School, was honored by students on annual Principal Appreciation Day. Isabelle Sahyoun, left, Taylor Collins, Adrien Beaulieu and Ian Belcher were among the presenters. More than 70 duffers and scratch golfers alike raised $8,000 for the school at IHM’s annual fundraising tournament October 15th. Tom Runkel, and Tim Connolly were among the organizers.

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members have been in the choir at least 3 years and some as long as six years. Congrats to Emilia and John Calderon, Mary and Therese Dudro, Caitlin and Colleen Ford, P.K. Jones, Joseph Loiacono, Kathryn Nunnally, and Helena Tietze. Should you want a listen, the choir will be singing Christmas carols as a prelude to the Cathedral’s 5:30 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve….

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

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World Peace Day . . .

The message focused on truth as the foundation for peace — the truth that all people are created in the image and likeness of God with equal dignity, that God has a plan for humanity, and that good and evil exist and can be recognized by all people.

Pope Benedict quoted the Second Vatican Council, which said, “Not everything automatically becomes permissible between hostile parties once war has regrettably commenced.”

The body of international humanitarian law was developed to limit the devastating consequences of war, and its precepts are binding on all nations, the pope said.

In fact, humanitarian law must be brought up to date to respond to “the changing scenarios of today’s armed conflicts and the use of ever newer and more sophisticated weapons,” he said.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presented the pope’s message at a Dec. 13 Vatican press conference.

He said the Catholic Church absolutely condemns the use of torture in all circumstances, including interrogations aimed at preventing further violence.

“Torture is a humiliation of the human person” and there is no excuse for using it, he said. Other methods exist for gaining information, assessing threats and stopping potential terrorists.

Asked specifically if Pope Benedict was condemning the United States for its prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegedly in Eastern Europe for suspected terrorists, Cardinal Martino said the pope “is not condemning anybody, but is inviting them to follow the Geneva Conventions. All those states that are parties to the convention have an obligation to observe it.”

The pope thanked international organizations committed to negotiations and peacemaking, but also “the many soldiers engaged in the delicate work of resolving conflicts and restoring the necessary conditions for peace.”

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

■ Continued from cover

Pope Benedict XVI arrives to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Dec. 7. The pope said that world leaders, governments and citizens must use their power to come to the aid of the poor and oppressed.

Peace is the result of “an order planned and willed by God,” he said. It is a gift that must be sought through prayer, but also through a commitment to justice.

Falsehood is the enemy of peace, he said.

Nazism and communism demonstrated that ideological and political systems can twist the truth, bringing about “the exploitation and murder of an appalling number of men and women, wiping out entire families and communities,” the German-born pope wrote.

“After experiences like these, how can we fail to be seriously concerned about lies in our own time, lies which are the framework for menacing scenarios of death in many parts of the world,” he said.

Truth is attacked both by those who deny it exists and by those who think they can impose their conception of truth on others, Pope Benedict said.

“The nihilist denies the very existence of truth, while the fundamentalist claims to be

able to impose it by force,” he said. “Both show a dangerous contempt for human beings and human life and ultimately for God himself.”

“Fanatical fundamentalism,” the pope said, does not contribute to spreading the truth about God, but “disfigures his loving and merciful countenance, replacing him with idols made in its own image.”

Pope Benedict said, “God is love which saves, a loving father who wants to see his children look upon one another as brothers and sisters, working responsibly to place their various talents at the service of the common good of the human family.”

In the message, released three days after Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Pope Benedict also pleaded for a renewed international effort for nuclear disarmament.

“The truth of peace requires that all — whether those governments which openly

or secretly possess nuclear arms or those planning to acquire them — agree to change their course by clear and firm decisions and strive for a progressive and concerted nuclear disarmament,” he said.

Pope Benedict decried the increasing amount of money governments spend on their military and on armaments while the process “for disarmament is bogged down in indifference.”

Cardinal Martino told reporters, “In 2004 the military spending of nations surpassed the sum of $1 trillion, about $160 for every inhabitant on the planet.”

Addressing Catholics specifically, Pope Benedict said, “When we hear the Gospel, dear brothers and sisters, we learn to build peace on the truth of a daily life inspired by the commandment of love.”

“If peace is to be authentic and lasting,” he said, “it must be built on the bedrock of the truth about God and the truth about man.”

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

December 16, 2005

in brief

ST. LOUIS (CNS) — St. Louis Archbishop Raymond L. Burke is asking parishes in his archdiocese to join efforts to seek a moratorium on the death penalty in Missouri. The archdiocesan Commission on Human Rights has been collecting signatures on petitions asking for the moratorium. The resolution will be sent to the state’s governor and legislators, members of its congressional delegation and President George W. Bush. Archbishop Burke cited the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” which says cases in which an execution is an absolute necessity to defend others “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” The archbishop repeated the words of Pope John Paul II in his homily at a Mass during his visit to St. Louis in 1999. The pope said modern society has the means of protecting itself without imposing the death penalty.

Bishop calls for investigation into attack on Chinese nuns WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ international policy committee has called for a thorough investigation and sanctions against those responsible for the attacks on Catholic nuns in China. In a letter to the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., said the government has implicitly acknowledged its involvement in the attacks, which severely injured at least 16 nuns from the Congregation of the Franciscan Sacred Heart Missionaries in Xi’an. The nuns were attacked by some 40 men while protecting church grounds that had been the subject of an ongoing legal dispute between local government authorities and church officials.

Religious groups, retired general back anti-torture amendment WASHINGTON — Policies that are unclear about the torture of prisoners damage U.S. international interests and

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Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Official newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Most Reverend John C. Wester, publisher Maurice E. Healy, associate publisher & executive editor Editorial Staff: Jack Smith, editor; Evelyn Zappia, feature editor; Tom Burke, “On the Street” and Datebook

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

St. Louis archbishop asks parishes to back death penalty moratorium

Vatican gendarme Luca DeLeo and Swiss Guard Anton Kappler pass the Olympic flame on torches as they wait for Pope Benedict XVI's Angelus blessing in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Dec. 8. This was the first time Vatican representatives ever participated as Olympic torchbearers. The Olympic flame will travel on a 64-day relay through Italy and neighboring countries in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics, which begin in February in Turin.

credibility and are an offense against human rights, said panelists who included a retired Army general, a former adviser to the departments of State and Defense and representatives of Jewish and Catholic organizations. As the House prepared to take up an amendment to the Defense Department appropriations bill banning “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” of prisoners and spelling out what that means, supporters of the McCain amendment on torture and abuse rallied backers from diverse backgrounds. Steve Colecchi, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops support the amendment because the church teaches respect for fundamental human rights and dignity.

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‘Little by little’ New Orleans being restored, says Xavier president NEW ORLEANS — Like thousands of others, Norman Francis, the president of Xavier University, lost his house in Hurricane Katrina. He nearly lost the university he has led since 1968 and built into a national powerhouse. And now the man who arguably has done more than others over the last 40 years to change the face of New Orleans does not want to lose his city.

Francis did not hesitate when Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked him to be chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a panel charged with developing and implementing a recovery NEWS-IN-BRIEF, page 5

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Catholic San Francisco

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Execution prompts calls for moratorium, defense of all life SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — Church leaders in California, Washington and Rome were among those urging California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute the death sentence of Stanley “Tookie” Williams and asking Californians to call for a moratorium on executions.

But Williams, 51, was executed by lethal injection about 12:35 a.m. Dec. 13 at San Quentin State Prison. Williams had been convicted for the 1979 murders of a 7-Eleven clerk in Whittier and three members of a family who owned a Los Angeles motel.

In a statement, Auxiliary Bishop John C. Wester of San Francisco, who is apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, asked Californians “to ponder carefully whether the use of the death penalty makes our society safer.”

He said “a moratorium is needed to evaluate whether the death penalty serves the common good and safeguards the dignity of human life. We are convinced that it does not.”

San Quentin is located within the boundaries of the San Francisco Archdiocese.

Bishop Wester offered prayers and sympathy to the families of those Williams was con-

victed of murdering — Albert Owens, Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang and Ye-Chen Lin. But, he added, while the state has a right to require punishment and to protect the community, “we believe the state’s role in meting out justice would have been served best by keeping Stanley T. Williams in prison for the rest of his life.”

Bishop Wester said, “We must ask ourselves and our fellow citizens whether the violence of state-ordered executions ... does not itself contribute to a culture of death in which respect for the dignity and precious worth of every human life is diminished.”

Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole “would have been a just and exacting punishment,” he added.

A few days before the execution, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., chairman of the U.S. bishops Committee on Domestic Policy, wrote to Schwarzenegger urging him to spare Williams’ life.

“It is not my intent in any way to diminish the responsibility of those who have committed terrible crimes, however, this execution can only compound the violence that already exists in our society,” Bishop DiMarzio wrote

in the Dec. 9 letter. A copy of it was released Dec. 12 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

He told Schwarzenegger, who is Catholic, that Pope John Paul II “challenged all followers of Christ to be ‘unconditionally pro-life.’”

“This is not about ideology, but a fundamental respect for life,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “We do not believe that you can teach that killing is wrong by killing. We do not believe that you can defend life by taking life.”

The afternoon before the execution, Schwarzenegger denied Williams’ appeal for clemency saying in a statement that “without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption.”

Williams, who co-founded the Crips, a violent criminal gang, maintained his innocence in the killings. During his 25 years in prison, Williams apologized for starting the Crips and actively worked to teach children about the dangers of gangs and violence. He co-wrote children’s books about avoiding gangs, regularly spoke by phone to students, teachers and community groups, and was nominated several times for Nobel Prizes in

literature and peace.

Outside the San Quentin prison, about 1,000 opponents of the death penalty and a few capital punishment supporters held a vigil at the time of the execution.

In Rome, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told Italian television Dec. 13 that all human life, including the lives of those who have killed, must be defended.

Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) said penalties for crimes “must be rehabilitative,” and the death penalty rules out any possibility of rehabilitation, Cardinal Martino said a few hours after Williams’ execution.

In a written statement, the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community, which is lobbying for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty, said the governor’s decision not to grant clemency covered the California justice system “with avoidable shame.”

Williams’ conversion to nonviolence, his repentance and his regret for the things he did as a gang leader inspired “millions of poor children” to seek positive ways out of violence and poverty, the community said.

News-in-brief . . .

were convicted and sentenced by a Brazilian court. Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista received prison terms of 27 years and 17 years, respectively, Dec. 10 for killing Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and an outspoken advocate for Brazilian peasants. The convicted killers, however, did not receive the maximum sentence allowed by law. The public defender’s office said it would appeal the decision.

Sister Dorothy’s brother, David Stang, and her sister, Marguerithe Stang Holm, were in Belem, Brazil, for the trial. These were the first convictions for Sister Dorothy’s assassination. Three other suspects, accused of being the ones who gave the orders to kill the nun, remain in jail awaiting trial.

Vatican on Web and more

nently accredited journalists. Meanwhile, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications deals with photo, TV and radio reporters at the Vatican, helping them access what has become a global hot zone for news.

■ Continued from page 4 plan for the state. “The question is how can we collectively focus on this and plan well and not take ages to do it,” Francis told the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese. “All of us are hearing the cries of pain and frustration. I’m part of the citizenry having to find a another place to live. Little by little things are happening.”

Two Brazilians sentenced for slaying U.S. nun SAO PAULO, Brazil — Two men accused of the February killing of a U.S. nun

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Rebuilding in Iraq ROME — One year after terrorists launched bomb attacks against Catholic properties in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, at least one of the buildings has been relocated, but another has not been touched because it is in a volatile area of the city. On Dec. 7, 2004, an armed group of commandos stormed an Armenian Catholic church, ushered everyone out of the building, then detonated two bombs, reducing the church to rubble.

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VATICAN CITY — Two hundred years ago, popes communicated with pen on parchment, in documents and letters secured with sealing wax. Today, Pope Benedict XVI’s teachings and speeches are flashed around the world in real time on the Internet, and he is the star of the Vatican’s own Web site. He gives interviews to Vatican Radio, and many of his daily events are broadcast via CTV, the Vatican Television Center, which runs a webcam on St. Peter’s Square. The pope’s mission is reflected in the Vatican’s own newspaper, publishing house and printing presses. The Vatican press office organizes reporting pools and doses out official information to more than 400 perma-

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Virgin of Guadalupe . . .

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The front of the Dec. 9th twelve mile pilgrimage reaches its first rest stop, Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma.

The cemetery provided hot chocolate, coffee, Mexican sweet breads and other refreshments for the pilgrims.

Above Fr. Bill Justice assists Bishop Wester below the beautifully decorated altar at Mission Dolores.

Left, Knights of Columbus provide an honor guard for the entrance procession at Mission Dolores Basilica.

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Probates, Conservatorships, Guardianships and Adoptions

MARGARET LAUGHLIN MARTIN

(PHOTOS BY JACK SMITH)

This year marked the 12th year Cathedral parishioner Pedro Garcia and his team, Cruzada Guadalupana, have organized a pilgrimage from All Souls Church in South San Francisco to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Mary’s Cathedral. The twelve-mile walk to Mass at the Cathedral replicates the walk taken by Juan Diego when he was first visited by the Virgin.

This year more than 10,000 people joined the pilgrimage. At 7:00 a.m. Dec. 12, Bishop John C. Wester blessed pilgrims and their images of Our Lady of Guadalupe at All Souls church.

Bishop Wester then marched with the pilgrims to the Cathedral where he celebrated Mass for an overflow crowd.

Along the route, thousands of people joined in the procession, which included recitation of the Rosary, Guadalupano songs, live band, and float with a young boy and girl representing Juan Diego and the Virgin. At least 1,000 people joined the procession on Mission Street between 24th and 16th Streets in San Francisco.

“Everything went well,” Garcia said, “It was the biggest crowd ever and this year it was not just Latin people. It was very multi-cultural.” The event was heavily promoted by Spanish language radio station La Raza (93.3 FM) and through parishes and Catholic organizations.

In his homily at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Bishop Wester said, “Today, you and I walked 12 miles together, symbolizing the lives of Faith we share. The pilgrimage also symbolizes the fact that despite all that we have to fear, it does not conquer us because we walk with Jesus, as Mary did.”

Several parishes across the Archdiocese also staged celebrations, liturgies and processions on December 12.

At St. Anthony Parish, in North Fair Oaks near Menlo Park, more than 1,500 people showed up at 5:00 a.m. for a procession and Mañanitas, or the singing of songs in honor of Our Lady. Two 6:00 a.m. Masses were standing room only, one in the church and one in the dining hall. It was also overflowing for the two 7:00 p.m. Masses and celebration which included food and music and dancers. As at other parishes, the celebratory food included the traditional tamales, Mexican sweet breads and chocolates.

Parishioners at St. Raphael processed up A Street through downtown San Rafael to the Church at 4:30 a.m. Nearly 500 attended a 5:00 a.m. Mass and reception and the children of St. Raphael school honored the Virgin of Guadalupe at an 8:30 a.m. Mass. Another 800 attended a nighttime Mass and celeVIRGIN OF GUADALUPE, page 7

(PHOTO BY MAX MARAFFIO)

■ Continued from cover

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Catholic San Francisco

7

Virgin of Guadalupe . . .

■ Continued from page 6

(PHOTOS BY JACK SMITH)

More than 1,000 people crowd the entrance to Mission Dolores Basilica Dec. 12 to sing early morning songs to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Above, Uribiel Rojas, playing Juan Diego, displays the miraculous image to Bishop Wester.

Right, Mariachi Juvenil Los Cachoros provided music at Mission Dolores.

bration according to Fr. Paul Rossi, pastor.

Parishioners at Our Lady of Loretto in Novato also took part in an early morning Mañanitas and in the afternoon processed through downtown Novato singing and praying on their way to a 7:00 p.m. Mass.

Thousands attended nearly all day celebrations at St. Peter parish in San Francisco’s Mission District. Aside from the traditional Mañanitas, it was standing room only at 6:00 a.m., noon and 7:00 p.m. Masses.

Bishop John C. Wester joined in the celebrations at Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. More than 1,000 joined to sing songs to Our Lady at 4:45 a.m. on the steps of the Basilica.

The Mass with rousing music accompanied by the traditional horns and strings of Mariachi Juvenil Los Cachoros was standing room only.

The entrance procession took place under the ceremonial guard of the Knights of Columbus. As at other celebrations this year, the crowd was increasingly multi-cultural, a fact remarked on by Bishop Wester. “It’s good to see so many cultures come to this event each year,” he said, “Our Lady of Guadalupe is very important to our Archdiocese.”

Fathers Bill Justice, pastor, Ulysses D’Aquila, Charles Onubogu, and Monsignor Maurice McCormick, pastor emeritus, concelebrated Mass. Dozens of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity were present to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe. After the offertory procession, Uribiel Rojas reenacted the part of Juan Diego, running to the altar and spilling his cloak full of flowers before Bishop Wester, revealing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In his homily, Bishop Wester recalled Pope John Paul II’s proclamation, “Be not afraid!” And yet, he explained, when considering recent natural disasters and conflicts and ever present personal challenges, “We all have fears to face,” he said.

Bishop Wester asked the congregation to look to Mary, who also had “so many things to fear, and yet Mary always trusted in her Son. She was not afraid.”

Bishop Wester said that “Mary is our Mother,” and that “you and I must have confidence that Mary will lead us, showing us the way to her Son.” He exhorted the congregation to “go forth from this celebration today and do what we can to ease the fear of others with the Good News we share today.” One way to do that during Advent, he said, is to “pause in front of the manger scene and absorb into our hearts that peaceful message . . . that image we are called to imitate in a broken, fragile world.”

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Arizona bishops urge perspective, prayer on immigration issues

By Robert DeFrancesco PHOENIX (CNS) — Noting that their communities are increasingly divided as a result of immigration-related issues, the bishops of Arizona issued a pastoral letter calling for immigration reform and asking Catholics to respond to the mounting crisis with compassion, education, hospitality and prayer.

“We ... are deeply saddened by the death and suffering we see on our border,” said the letter, issued Dec. 12. “We are aware that our communities have become increasingly divided as a result of the immigration in our state. We have seen mounting expressions of hostility and opposition to undocumented immigrants. We are concerned about the image that some may have of Arizona as a state which is hostile to immigrants. We do not believe this to be true.”

The 4,000-word document, “You Welcomed Me,” is an assessment of current public discourse, federal immigration policy, and immigration’s cultural and economic impact on the state. In addition, it offers a history of the church’s position on the right to migrate, explaining how it affects Arizona’s Catholics today.

It was developed and signed by the four bishops of Arizona: Bishops Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson and Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix; Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., whose diocese includes northeastern Arizona; and Bishop William C. Skurla of the Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys, based in Phoenix. (The eparchy relocated to Arizona from Van Nuys, Calif., in 1994.)

The bishops’ letter includes personal statements from people who are a part of the immigration struggle. They bring to life the hardships and sacrifices of migrants, challenges faced by a cattle rancher in the border town of Douglas, thoughts from Arizona employers and insights from local parish leaders.

It also cites passages from Scripture and Catholic social teaching that call for defending human dignity and joining in global solidarity.

The document was released to coincide with the feast of

Our Lady of Guadalupe, a day celebrating Marian apparitions to St. Juan Diego in what is today Mexico in 1531.

The Guadalupe image is central to the faith life of many Latin Americans and people of Latino heritage throughout the world.

The letter’s release also coincides with the resumption of debate in Congress over several bills that would address immigration problems through various measures.

The Arizona bishops said they “firmly support humane enforcement of our country’s laws; however, as is the case with other issues, we believe that our immigration laws are outdated and no longer fit the economic realities and security needs of our times. Our nation’s demand for labor and the increasing displacement of farmers and workers in Mexico and Central America call for a new approach to regulating immigration from those countries.

“Economic globalization trends which allow capital and goods to flow freely across borders require a new approach to managing the flows of migrant workers across our borders,” they continued. “Very few legal avenues are currently available to migrant workers who wish to enter the United States legally.”

The document voices concern for the hundreds of migrants who die each year while trying to cross the Arizona desert and the difficulties they encounter by deciding to enter the United States illegally. It noted that in the 2005 fiscal year, at least 261 border crossing deaths were documented in Arizona, while 460 deaths were reported all along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It is often easy to overlook the hardships that undocumented immigrants must endure to reach the United States, to cross the border, to live in a country in which they are not legally recognized and often subjected to discrimination and abuse,” the letter reads. “For the vast majority, it is not a decision that is taken lightly. Parents, children, and grandchildren are separated, often for years on end.”

Federal policy in the last decade included border enforcement programs in Texas and California that fun-

Pius XII author appears on TV program Dec. 18

neled much of the illegal border traffic into the inhospitable desert of southern Arizona. The state’s bishops and the archbishop of the adjacent Mexican Archdiocese of Hermosillo have worked together on various efforts to shape the church’s pastoral response to the flow of people across the border.

“While we do not condone undocumented immigration, we recognize that it would not be feasible to deport all of these immigrants,” the letter said. “We must find a way to bring them out of the shadows and incorporate them into society.”

It said immigration reform that embraces an honest and prayerful approach to the situation will lead to better national security, a stabilized labor market and higher living standards, and will encourage the nation’s 10 million undocumented immigrants to become more active in society.

“We believe that Arizona can lead our country toward a solution to this crisis,” the bishops said. “We can build on our common ground and our shared values as Catholics to develop, along with others in our community, a solution that protects the dignity of the migrants among us, strengthens our communities, makes us safer as a nation, and builds on the great immigrant heritage of our country.”

They pledged to take several steps themselves and asked the state’s Catholics to join them by: — Praying for all who are affected by the crisis.

— Making parishes more welcoming to ethnic and cultural diversity.

— Becoming educated about immigration issues.

— Supporting comprehensive immigration reform that is more far-reaching than proposals that focus only on enforcement.

— Working to reduce poverty in Mexico and Latin America.

— Working with other dioceses and other faiths to help find policy solutions.

In San Mateo, California

Rabbi David G. Dalin, an author and professor of history and political science, talks with host Maury Healy about his new book, “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope,” on the “For Heaven’s Sake” TV program, which airs Sunday morning, Dec. 18 at 5:30 a.m. on KRON-Channel 4.

In his well-documented new book, Rabbi Dalin sets the record straight on Pope Pius XII, and demonstrates that the wartime pope was a friend and protector of the Jewish people.

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

9

Christmas Giving St. Francis Center provides help and hope to needy families The St. Francis Center, located in the North Fair Oaks area of southern San Mateo County, is a haven of help and hope for poor families, many of whom are recent immigrants. The non-profit organization, established in 1986, provides food, clothing, laundry and shower facilities, housing, and education.

Its mission is to help needy families live in dignity and become self-supporting members of the community.

St. Francis Center is staffed

by Sister Christina Heltsley and Sister Susan Ostrowski, with the help of nearly 90 volunteers. The Center provides food to 2,600 family members each month, and distributes 19,000 bags of clothing each year. Additional services help families move from depend-

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ency to independence. All services are provided in the spirit of the St. Francis Center motto: “Compassion not judgment.”

At Christmas, St. Francis Center provides children of poor families with toys at La Casita, the little house. These gifts have an impact far beyond the delight of a child in receiving a toy. A father who is raising his two daughters after the death of his wife gratefully thanked St. Francis Center volunteers with tears in his eyes.

St. Francis Center seeks cash donations, clothing, food items and toys.

The address of St. Francis Center is 101 Buckingham Ave. Redwood City, CA 94063.

Phone: (650) 365-7829.

Website: www.stfrancisrwc.org.

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Guest Commentary

C.S. Lewis on ‘Xmas and Christmas’ Fifty years ago C.S. Lewis published an ironic little essay called, Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus. In it, he reverses the letters of his home country, “Britain.”

Then he writes about the strange winter customs of a barbarian nation called Niatirb.

It’s worth reading as we get deeper into Advent. I’ll share with you just one passage: In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound, (the Niatirbians) have a great festival called Exmas, and for 50 days they prepare for it (in the manner which is called,) in their barbarian speech, the Exmas Rush.

When the day of the festival comes, most of the citizens, being exhausted from the (frenzies of the) Rush, lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much as on other days, and crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas, they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the drinking and the reckoning of how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine.

(Now a) few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast.

But (as for) what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, (this) is not credible. It is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and so great things (as those involved in the Exmas Rush), in honor of a god they do not believe in.

What Lewis wrote about in Britain half a century ago is increasingly true about our own country today. We’re already through Advent. What have we done to really live it?

The world has an ingenious ability to attach itself to what Christians believe; tame it, subvert it, and then turn it against the very people who continue to believe. Too many Americans don’t really celebrate Christmas. They may think they do, but they don’t. They celebrate Exmas.

The world — left to its own devices — has no room and no use for the birth of Jesus Christ. It has contempt for Christians who seriously strive to be His disciples. So we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being the saints God intended us to be. We can at least seek to be holy by tithing our time to sit quietly with God; allow Him to fill our actions and our choices with His Son; and let Him shape us into the men and women He needs. We can get up and experience the dawn in silence as a reminder of what Advent and Christmas mean. We can prepare ourselves to be alert for the voice of God and to receive God’s word afresh and proclaim it anew.

We need to understand that in many ways America is no longer a Christian culture. Of course, that can change. Many

good Catholics and other Christians still live in it. But if people really understood and acted on the meaning of Advent, the world would be a different place.

Advent means “coming.” What’s comMost Rev. ing in the reality of Charles Chaput Christmas is an invasion. The world needs the invasion but doesn’t want it. It’s an invasion of human flesh and all creation by the Son of God; by the holiness of the Creator Himself.

All of us in the Church were baptized to be part of that good invasion. The doubts, the failures, the mistakes of the past don’t matter. Only our choices now matter. How will we live our Christian faith from this day forward? How will we make our Catholic witness an icon of Christ’s Advent?

For our own sake, and the sake of the people we love, we need to pray that our yearning for God will truly reflect God’s yearning for us. And when it does, then the world will be a different place.

Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput is Archbishop of Denver.

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Catholic San Francisco

11

Christmas reflection Re-imagining Christmastime

By Father Eugene Hemrick In conversation with a friend about the coming of Christmas, she blurted out: “It always makes me sad. I can’t wait until it is over!”

Why are some people saddened by Christmas?

Is it because it raises unreasonable expectations that everyone is to be extremely joyful? As much as it is a joyful season, many unfortunately can’t turn off their unhappiness.

Or there may be health problems, troublesome children, aging parents, financial difficulties or family rifts. Even though everyone is singing Christmas carols and is into the shopping spirit, these ominous events are dark clouds blocking out the sunshine. The Christmas season tends to heighten this darkness because it emphasizes the difference between joyfulness and joylessness.

Could it be that we have overcommercialized Christmas, and some see its glitz as profanity? I can’t count the people I have talked with who were turned off with all the advertisements for Christmas gifts weeks before Thanksgiving was celebrated. Their main complaint, “We feel as if Christmas is a time in which to indulge ourselves or make amends with gifts, rather than focus outward on its real meaning. It cheapens Christmas!”

Could it be that as we get older we no longer have the warm feelings we once had as children during Christmastime? As children, more often than not, we lived a beautiful life of fantasy. Our imaginations were filled with awe over thoughts of Joseph, Mary, the Christ child in the manger, Santa Claus and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, toy trains and Christmas tree decorations. As we age, the fantasyland we cherished no longer holds it magic.

Christmastime is a time of mixed feelings in which we pine for a past no longer to be ours.

How might the darkness Christmas is to some be overcome?

Joy comes in many forms. If we are having difficulties with another or are avoiding them and feeling sad about this, one simple telephone call, a letter or personal visit could be our key to a joyful Christmas. Life is too short. Let it begin anew by getting over the differences that shorten it even more!

If physical, psychological or severe personal problems are plaguing us, they usually are accompanied by fear. As difficult as it may be, the best way to regain our joy is to face it and not run from it. Once the enemy is out in the open, it is easier to deal with it.

To overcome our disdain over the commercialization of Christmas, all we need do is to enter fully into the spirit of

Advent. Advent is a time of waiting to receive the most expensive gift of gifts: the coming of Christ.

If, perhaps, our old world of fantasy isn’t working any longer, then create a new world of fantasy and re-imagine what it must have been like when God so loved us that he sent his only Son. What exactly was happening in heaven at that moment in time?

May you have a very joy-filled Christmas!

CATHEDRAL OF ST. MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION 1111 Gough St., San Francisco, • Tel: (415) 567-2020

Saturday, December 17, 2005 The Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) 4:00 p.m. -5:00 p.m.

Fourth Sunday of Advent December 18, 2005 Blessing of Expectant Parents at all Masses Masses

Saturday, December 18 - 5:30 p.m.

Church of St. Isabella One Trinity Way

Christmas L i t u rg i es

P.O. Box 6166

San Rafael, California 94903

(415) 479-1560

CHRISTMAS 2005 Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, 2005 Confessions: 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Family Mass: 5:00 p.m.

Vigil Mass: 9:00 p.m.

“Midnight” Mass: 11:00 p.m.

Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25, 2005 Masses: 7:30, 9:00 & 11:00 a.m. No Evening Mass

Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church 1721 Hillside Drive, Burlingame Capuchin Franciscans 650-347-7768

2005 Christmas Schedule Christmas Eve 5:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m. (Children’s Mass) Midnight Mass Christmas Day 8:00, 10:00 and 12 noon Confessions Saturday, December 17, 3:30-4:45 p.m.

Saturday, December 24, 3:00-4:00 p.m.

New Year’s Vigil – 5:00 p.m.

New Year’s Day 7:00, 8:30, 10:00 a.m. and 12 Noon (No Evening Mass on New Year’s Day)

Mater Dolorosa Church

307 Willow Avenue, South San Francisco, CA 94080

CHRISTMAS CONFESSIONS Advent Penance Service: Tuesday December 20th, 7:30 p.m.

NO Confessions on Christmas Eve, Saturday December 24th

SIMBANG GABI MASSES Wednesday, December 21st, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 22nd, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, December 23rd, 7:30 p.m.

CHRISTMAS MASSES Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24th; 5:00 p.m. (Children’s Mass) 10:00 p.m. (Midnight Mass) Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25th; 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 12 Noon NO Evening Mass

NEW YEAR’S MASSES

The Capuchin Franciscans & Parish Staff wish our Parishioners and Friends Peace, Love and Hope for Christmas and the New Year

New Year’s Eve, Saturday, December 31st, 5:00 p.m.

New Year’s Day, Sunday, January 1st 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 12 Noon NO Evening Mass

St.Anne of the Sunset Church

St. Anthony

850 Judah St., S.F., 415-665-1600

2005 Christmas Schedule Holy Hour and Community Penance Service

1000 Cambridge St., Novato, CA

CHRISTMAS 2005 Confessions at St. Anthony’s December 17 December 24

Tuesday, December 20 , 7:30 p.m. th

Christmas Eve, December 24 5:00 p.m.

11:15 p.m.

Family Mass Choir Concert

Christmas Day, December 25 12:00 midnight 7:30, 9:00, 10:30 a.m.

12:00 noon

English Mass English Mass Cantonese Mass

4:00 PM to 4:45 PM 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

MASSES Christmas Eve December 24 5:00 PM Children’s Mass 7:00 PM Christmas Music 7:30 PM Mass 9:30 PM Chirstmas Music 10:00 PM Mass No Midnight Mass

Christmas Day December 25 7:00, 9:00,11:00 AM

Mass

New Year’s Vigil December 31, 2005 5:00 PM

New Year’s Day January 1, 2006 7:00, 9:00, 11:00 AM

Mass

Please let us know of any parishioners that should be visited for the Sacraments.

Sunday 7:30 a.m. - Cantor and Organ 9:00 a.m. - Gregorian Chant - Cathedral Schola 11:00 a.m. - Cathedral Choir 1:00 p.m. - Spanish - Coro 3:30 p.m. – Seasonal Organ Recital

Friday, December 23 The Cathedral will be closed following the 12:10 p.m. Mass for Christmas preparations

Vigil The Nativity of the Lord Saturday, December 24, 2005 Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Caroling with the Cathedral Choirs of Boys and Girls 4:30 p.m.

5:30 p.m. – Mass 11:30 p.m. – Caroling Cathedral Choir and Brass Ensemble Midnight Mass Bishop John C. Wester, Principal Celebrant

Christmas Day Saturday, December 25, 2004 Please Note: There is no 7:30 a.m. Mass on Christmas Day 9:00 a.m. Mass – Gregorian Chant 11:00 a.m. Mass – Cathedral Choir Bishop Ignatius Wang, Principal Celebrant 1:00 p.m. Spanish Mass Spanish Coro The Cathedral will close for the day at 3:00 p.m.

Vigil The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God Saturday, December 31, 2005 5:30 p.m. Mass

Octave of Christmas The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God Sunday, January 1, 2006 7:30 a.m. Mass 9:00 a.m. Mass – Gregorian Chant 11:00 a.m. Mass – Cathedral Choir 1:00 p.m. Spanish Mass Spanish Coro Please Note: There is no 5:30 p.m. Mass on this Holy Day of Obligation

12

Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Christmas reflection Considering a spirituality of holiday travel When we stay with a relative or friend, we have to ask our hosts where they keep their cereal, if we need to take As a young adult, I’m still at that glorious time in life our shoes off when we walk in the door, what the plans are where my only real holiday responsibility is to show up. for the next day. When we are displaced, even in such a I’m not directly responsible for any holiday host cooking or small way as this, we cast off the illusion of “having it all large-scale decorating. But showing up, of course, almost together,” of being the one in control. always involves either a car trip or a plane ride.

The Gospel infancy narratives tell stories of much more While we may view holiday travel as somewhat dramatic displacement — in Matthew’s Gospel the of a hassle, the experience actually has a spiritual Holy Family’s flight to Egypt and in Luke’s Gospel ‘Traveling . . . acknowledges that we are part their journey from Galilee to Judea to participate in backdrop, viewed with a certain lens.

Growing up, my family’s holiday travels always a census. The Christmas holiday itself arose out of took us to my grandparents’ house in industrial of an entity larger than ourselves, larger the ultimate displacement — God coming to dwell northwest Indiana. I distinctly remember riding in among us as one of us. the back of our car in the dark of night, my nostrils than our nuclear families and larger than The displacement we experience in our holiday filling with the sour smell of sulfur as we plowed travel exposes our vulnerability. It only takes one through the snow and slush on the Indiana toll road. those who inhabit the land of the living.’ turbulent airplane takeoff or a drive in treacherous I took in the hodgepodge of belching smokestacks weather conditions to inspire a bout of spontaneous and polluted lakes, and my mom would tell us stories prayer. Even a two-hour interstate gridlock reminds about her father, my grandfather, who worked the grueling living. Our travel pays homage to our family communion of us that we are not in control. night shift in the Indiana steel mills for 30 years. She talked saints. It acknowledges that we stand on their shoulders, that Holiday travel makes concrete the reality that we are about how hard he worked, how he was able to secure a good we walk on a path they have forged and widened for us. pilgrim people, people who aren’t yet truly home. But in job even though he had never graduated from high school.

Holiday travel also gives rise to a sense of displacement embarking on even the smallest of journeys, where we tap The memory of these conversations causes me to see — another important component of the spiritual life. As a into our roots, warts and all, and experience the vulnerabilthis corner of northwest Indiana as a patch of raw, rusty guest in someone else’s domain, we experience a sense of dis- ity that comes with displacement, we return home enriched beauty every time I drive through it. It houses my roots. placement we don’t feel when we’re at home and in control. in some small way by our journey.

As the season of holiday travel begins, many of us will be transported to such places — the places that house our roots, the places that house the ghosts of our loved ones who passed away many holiday seasons ago.

Traveling to these places acknowledges that we are part of an entity larger than ourselves, larger than our nuclear families and larger than those who inhabit the land of the

By Renee LaReau

ST. MATTHEW

St. Francis of Assisi Church

CATHOLIC CHURCH

1425 Bay Road, East Palo Alto

ONE NOTRE DAME AVE. SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA

Christmas Schedule 2005 CONFESSIONS

Daily: 5:00 – 5:30 p.m. in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel

Friday, December 24:

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon; 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

MASSES Christmas Eve, December 24: 5:30, 7:00 p.m. (Spanish) and Midnight Christmas Carols begin at 11:00 p.m.

Christmas Day, December 25: 6:30, 7:30, 9:00 (Spanish), 10:30a.m. and 12:30p.m.

NEW YEAR’S DAY

Confessions

Christmas Liturgies

100 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 Tel. (415) 863-6259

Saturday, December 24, 2005

9:30 p.m. Carol Service 10 p.m. Christmas Vigil Mass (No 5 p.m. Mass)

Sunday, December 25, 2005

8 a.m.

10 a.m.

Saturday, December 31, 2005

5 p.m.

Christmas Mass Christmas Mass Vigil of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

8 & 10 a.m. Mass of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

God’s Inclusive Love Proclaimed Here!

Christmas Day Masses 8:00, 9:30 & 11:30 a.m.

No evening Mass on Christmas Day Friday, December 30 Mass Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

New Year’s Day & Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord Regular Sunday Mass Schedule 8:00, 9:30, 11:30 a.m. & 6:45 p.m.

Traditional Christmas Music at All Masses

Masses Saturday, December 24, 2005 6:00 pm Bi-lingual Children’s Mass Midnight Bi-lingual

Sunday, December 25, 2005 Masses 7:30 am English 9:30 am Spanish 11:30 am English 1:30 am Spanish

Saturday, December 31, 2005 Sunday, January 1, 2006

St. Raymond Catholic Church 1100 Santa Cruz Avenue Menlo Park, CA (650) 323-1755

ST. BARTHOLOMEW PARISH COMMUNITY

2005 Christmas Schedule

Corner of Alameda & Crystal Springs Rd. San Mateo, CA 94402 (650) 347-0701 www.barts.org

Fr. Michael Healy – Pastor

Christmas Week Schedule

Christmas Eve Masses 4:30 p.m. Family Mass 12:00 a.m. Midnight Mass

From 10:30 am to 12:00 pm and from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Masses 7:30 am English 9:30 am Spanish 11:30 am English 1:30 am Spanish

MOST HOLY REDEEMER

Confessions Saturday, December 17 3:30 – 4:15 p.m.

Saturday, December 24 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

6:00 pm Spanish Mass

Masses will be offered at 6:30, 7:30, 9:00 (Spanish) 10:30 & 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, January 1, 2006

650/322-2152

Mass Schedule For For Christmas and New New Year

Reconciliation Service (Confession) Monday, December 19 – 7:30pm

Christmas Eve (Vigil) – December 24 Christmas Concert 4:30pm Mass 5:15 pm Christmas Day – December 25, Sunday 8:00 am & 10:00 am Mass

601 Eucalyptus at 23rd Avenue Tel: 415 681 2444

Saint Stephen Catholic Church

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES Reconciliation Service December 20, Tuesday 7:30 pm Christmas Eve, December 24th Children’s Mass 4:00 & 6:00 pm Midnight Mass 12:00 am Christmas Day December 25th 8:00, 9:30 & 11:15 am

Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

13

Christmas reflection

During the holidays I hear again from friends who live alone how lonely they feel at this time of year. I relate to what they are saying with empathy.

People live alone for many reasons.

Some choose this lifestyle, but for many it is a situation imposed on them: A spouse dies, a child moves away.

Most of the time we don’t think about the days to come when we will be without companionship in our home. Then that day arrives. We no longer have loved ones to talk with, eat with, quarrel with, pray with, work or laugh with. We face a turning point and an at-first unknown future, but one that definitely will be different.

I went through this lifestyle change when all my children left home as they entered adulthood. I remember sometimes walking from room to room, feeling a loneliness that almost defied description. I still had my job to go to every day, and that was good. It kept me too busy to keep focusing on my loneliness.

But the emptiness was there, and the quiet. I had no one to cook for, or argue with, or listen to. In all honesty, I think I felt my best usefulness was at an end.

Of course, living alone is not a situation unique to only few of us. In fact, 28 million Americans live alone. That information is found in a new book I grabbed recently because the title caught my attention, “A Party of One, Meditations for Those Who Live Alone,” by Joni Woelfel (Resurrection Press, an imprint of Catholic Book Publishing Corp.). The best part of the book was the spirit of it.

Woelfel says it bluntly: “As in all stations in life, the unique dynamics of living

alone bring their own challenges, lessons, joys and rewards.”

Woelfel’s situation arrived unexpectedly.

After many years of marriage, and especially having to survive the suicide of a beloved son, she was given the surprising and terrifying news from her husband that he was leaving her. They subsequently reconciled.

But she learned so much from that time when she was suddenly thrust into aloneness that she found herself writing about it.

I found it amazing that she could stay so positive, actually even upbeat, when her life so sadly had plunged her into aloneness.

When you have to live alone “for whatever reason,” she tells readers, you can “take ownership” of your life if you remain confident that you are being guided and “upheld by God.” A word she speaks many times is “empowerment,” and she tells how she found ways to get comfort, inspiration and eventually wisdom in her new and sudden situation of living alone.

Often I felt myself relating to her situation. One chapter, in particular, where she talks about getting sick with influenza, brought back memories. She writes, “As a person living alone, there was no one to bring me chicken soup, a cup of tea or a word of encouragement.” I could relate, especially when she admits so honestly there was nothing she could do “but float with the experience.” Yet, this somehow, paradoxically, gave her a sense of peace knowing she “was in God’s hands, come what may.”

Woelfel’s advice was what I have learned — that those of us who live alone must take “ownership” for our lives, “confident in being guided and upheld by God.” Remembering that, we all can rejoice in this holiday season.

Christmas Liturgies

A woman lights a candle at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. Many of the more than 28 million Americans who live alone face the challege of lonliness at Christmas.

(CNS COURTESY FATHER MCSWEENEY)

By Antoinette Bosco

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

The holidays for those who live alone

Bumper sticker available at www.MerryChristmas.ms.

St. Dunstan Church

2559-40th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94116 (415) 731-6161

Advent/Christmas 2005 Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confessions) Monday, December 19, 7:00 pm Communal Reconciliation

Christmas Masses Christmas Eve (Saturday, December 24) 4:00 pm Christmas Vigil Mass. Guitar Accompanist.

5:30 pm Christmas Carols with Children’s Choir.

6:00 pm Family Mass. Children’s Choir 11:30 pm Christmas Carols with Adult Choir.

12:00 am Christmas Midnight Mass.

Adult Choir and Brass Ensemble.

Christmas Day (Sunday, December 25) 7:00 am Christmas Mass at Dawn.

8:30 am Cantor.

10:00 am Adult Choir and Brass Ensemble.

11:30 am Adult Choir and Brass Ensemble.

No evening Mass.

from

1133 Broadway Millbrae, CA 94030

OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR CHURCH

650-697-4730

St. Gabriel Church

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Christmas Celebration at St. Dunstan 2005

Christmas Eve Masses 4:30 pm Children’s Mass with Pageant

400 Church Street, Half Moon Bay December 21, Reconciliation 7:00 p.m.

December 24, Christmas Eve Mass 5:00 p.m. (English) December 25, Christmas Day 12 midnight, 7:45 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 11:15 a.m.

12:45 p.m. (Español)

11:00 pm Parish Christmas Carols with Scripture Readings

December 24, Christmas Eve 5:00 p.m. (Español)

11:30 pm Mass with Carols

December 25, Christmas Day 9:00 a.m.

Christmas Day Masses 7:00 am, 8:30 am, 10:00 am, 11:30 am

ST. ANTHONY’S, PESCADERO_

OUR LADY OF THE REFUGE, LA HONDA_ December 25, Christmas Day 10:45 a.m.

St. Dominic’s Catholic Church

December 24: CHRISTMAS EVE Saturday 5:30 p.m. (family) - Christmas Eve Family Mass 11:15 p.m. (solemn) - Christmas Carols followed

by Mass at Midnight December 25: CHRISTMAS DAY - THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD Sunday 7:30 (organ), 9:30 (family) and 11:30 a.m. (solemn), 1:30 p.m.(en español) (No 5:30 or 9:00 p.m. Masses) December 31: NEW YEAR’S EVE Saturday 6:00, 8:00 a.m., 5:30 p.m. (traditional) Vigil for Sunday January 1: NEW YEAR’S DAY - MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD Sunday Regular Mass and Confession Schedule 7:30 (quiet), 9:30 (family), 11:30 a.m. (solemn) 1:30 (en español), 5:30 (contemporary) and 9:00 p.m. (candlelight)

On Steiner at Bush (parking available) 415.567.7824 www.stdominics.org

14

Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Personal conversion still draws people to Christ, says papal preacher

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — One would not know it from reading newspapers or even theological journals, but Jesus Christ continues to attract people and spur them to change their lives, said the preacher of the papal household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, offering an Advent meditation to Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials, said personal conversion stories demonstrate that Jesus continues “to seize the hearts of people today with the same force that he seized (Sts.) John and Paul.”

The preacher shared with the pope the story of a Swiss artist and intellectual he knows from Milan, Italy. The man studied Buddhism and Hinduism and became a master, leading others in yoga and meditation.

One day, while walking in the woods, the man started thinking about the words of Christ, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.”

Overwhelmed with a realization that the words were true, he fell to the ground and fainted, Father Cantalamessa said. He now helps others grow in Christian faith and teaches them to pray the rosary.

Far from the attention of the media, the preacher said, the world “is full of these encounters with Christ that change lives, and it is a shame that discussions about Christ, even among theologians, ignore them completely.”

The Capuchin focused his meditation on Jesus as presented by the Gospel of his apostle, St. John.

St. John, known as “the disciple Jesus loved,” powerfully presents Jesus as the eternal, divine Son of God, he said.

But the power of his witness for believers today does not have to come only through the words of his Gospel, Father Cantalamessa said.

“Not being able to take their faith with them to heaven because it is no longer needed there, the saints are happy to leave their faith as an inheritance to their brothers and sisters who need it here on earth,” he said.

“We cannot only contemplate the ardent faith of John, we can make it our own,” the preacher told the pope.

Father Cantalamessa said St. John’s love for Jesus, a love that grew stronger as the years passed, probably was not fired only by the Holy Spirit after Jesus died.

On the cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to John and told him to consider her his own mother.

“He lived with her, prayed with her and talked with her about Jesus,” the preacher said.

Just think, he added, when St. John wrote “‘And the Word became flesh’ the evangelist had alongside him, under the same roof, the one in whose womb this mystery took place.”

“The Holy Spirit and Mary, in different ways, are the two best allies to have in our efforts to draw close to Jesus, to ensure that he is born by faith in our lives this Christmas,” he said.

Christ on the cross, attended by his mother and the Apostle John, is depicted in paint and relief at St. Mary's Church in Ely, England.

“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’

Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.”

(Jn 19:26-27)

HOLY NAME OF JESUS 39th & Lawton, San Francisco, CA 2005

CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE

Christmas Liturgies Saints Peter and Paul Church

ST. PHILIP THE APOSTLE PARISH at Diamond Street and Elizabeth Street, (415)282-0141

Holy Week Services 2005 Visit our magnificent new Nativity Set!

Christmas Eve Confessions 4:00 to 5:00 PM Mass (English) 5:00 PM Christmas Carols 11:15 PM Mass (English) Midnight Mass (Chinese) Midnight Christmas Day Masses English 7:30 AM English 8:45 AM Chinese 10:15 AM Italian 11:45 AM English 1:00 PM Parking is available.

First Sunday of every month 11:45 Mass in Latin with Gregorian Chant.

666 Filbert St. at Washington Square, North Beach

ST. THOMAS MORE CHURCH 415-452-9634 1300 Juniperro Serra Blvd.

San Francisco, CA 94132

CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE International Christmas Novena: (Simbang Gabi): 7:00 PM December 15th to the 24th

Wednesday December 21st: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM Confessions

Saturday, December 24th: 4:30 PM Children’s Mass 7:00 PM Christmas Eve Mass 9:00 PM Arabic Chirstmas Eve Mass 12:00 English Midnight Mass

Sunday, December 25th: 10:00 AM Christmas Mass – for all communities No Arabic Mass at 11:45 AM 4:00 PM Portuguese / Brazilian Mass 8:00 PM English Mass

Palm Sunday March 20: The Blessing of the palms (outside) before the 10:00 a.m. Mass with procession into the church. (Masses: Saturday 5:00 p.m., Sunday 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and noon.)

Holy Thursday March 24: Soup Supper 6:00 p.m. in the parish hall. Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7:30 p.m. Mass concludes with Eucharistic Procession and adora tion of the Blessed Sacrament until 10:30 p.m.

Good Friday

March 25: Confessions available from 10:15 to 11:15. Good Friday service begins at Noon, which includes the Good Friday Liturgy.

Catholic San Francisco wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

with the Blessing of the Fire and Lighting of the Easter Candle. The Vigil Mass also includes the blessing of the Easter Water, the celebration of adult baptisms and the renewal of baptismal promises.

12:00 Noon.

COME AND JOIN US FOR EASTER

2

The Priests and Parish Community of Saint Philip the Apostle Parish wish you a Happy and Blessed Easter

NATIONAL SHRINE OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

St. Charles Church

610 VALLEJO ST. @ COLUMBUS SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133 (415) 983-0405

Christmas 2005

www.ShrineSF.org

Mass on Christmas Eve DAY & DATE Sunday, December 18

EVENT Mass Vespers Carol Concert (repeat performance)

TIME 12:15 pm 3:15 pm 4:00 pm

Saturday, December 24

Festival of Lessons and Carols Midnight Mass (Vigil at 11:30 pm)

4:00 pm 12:00 am

Sunday, December 25

Midnight Mass Solemn Mass of Christmas

12:00 am 12:15 pm

Sunday, January 1

Mass of Mary, Mother of God

12:15 pm

Sunday, January 8

Mass Vespers Epiphany Lessons and Carols

12:15 pm 3:15 pm 4:00 pm

Mass on Christmas Day

Masses on New Year’s Day Feast of Mary, Mother of God Sunday, January 1 7:30, 9:00, 11:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

880 Tamarack Avenue San Carlos, CA 94070 650-591-7349

VIGIL OF THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY Saturday, December 31 5:00 p.m.

CONFESSIONS Saturday, Dec. 17, 2005 4:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 1 / hour before 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. & 11:30 a.m. Masses Friday, Dec. 23, 2005 7 – 8 p.m.

Easter Sunday March 27: Masses are: 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and

Sunday, December 25 7:30 a.m. – Cantors 9:00 a.m. – Adult Choir 11:30 a.m. – Cantors

CHRISTMAS DAY Sunday, December 25 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m.

5:15 p.m. (Vietnamese Mass)

NEW YEAR’S DAY Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (Holy Day of Obligation) Sunday, January 1 – 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 5:15 p.m. (Vietnamese Mass)

Holy Saturday March 26: The Easter Vigil Service at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, December 24 4:00 p.m. – Children’s Choir 7:30 p.m. – Contemporary Ensemble 10:00 p.m. – Adult Choir

CHRISTMAS EVE Saturday December 24 MASSES 5:00 p.m. (Family/Children’s Mass) 7:00 p.m. (Vietnamese Mass) 11:30 p.m. Christmas Carols with Holy Name Choral Ministry 12:00 MIDNIGHT Pontifical High Mass Most Rev. Ignatius C. Wang, Main Celebrant

December 16, 2005

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2 Samuel 7:15, 8b-12, 14a; Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38.

A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL (2 SM 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16) When King David was settled in his palace, and the Lord had given him rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!” Nathan answered the king, “Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.” But that night the Lord spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Should you build me a house to dwell in?’

“It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth. I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance. Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old, since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (PS 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29) R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

The promises of the Lord I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.

For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”; in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: Forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations.”

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Annunciation – Antonello da Messina, 1477.

Museo Nazionale, Palermo.

“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior.’

Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him, and my covenant with him stands firm.”

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS (ROM 16:25-27) Brothers and sisters: To him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.

A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE (LK 1:26-38) The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Catholic San Francisco

15

Scripture RAYMOND O’CONNOR

Trust in God’s enduring promise Promises – we all make them. They hold us accountable and keep us reliable. The liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas make a promise, too. Unlike promises we may make, this is the kind of promise that neither grows weak nor breaks. In the readings for this Fourth Sunday of Advent, David and Mary embody for us a very unique promise.

The Second Book of Samuel relates the story of two promises – one human, one Divine. King David (ca. 1,000 BC), enjoying peace in his house and rest from all his enemies, desires to build a dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of God. One can almost see David’s thoughts, free from the worries of war and conflict, planning to do something big for God since God has done so much for him. So, he declares to his prophet, Nathan, his intentions to build God a house – not just any house – but a “house of cedar.” This is a grand and costly promise as cedar was and is a very precious wood. God, though, has other plans and answers David’s promise to build God a house with an even greater, more enduring promise. God’s response expands in significance focusing first on David, then on Israel, and finally on the promise. God’s prophet, Nathan, reminds David that the peace he now enjoys comes from God’s faithfulness to David and that this peace will embrace the people of Israel as well “so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance.” Then God promises something greater than a house. God promises an heir that will secure David’s name and kingdom in perpetuity. This offspring of David will be like God’s son whom God will nurture and love. Now, it is David’s house that “shall endure” and his “throne shall stand firm forever.” It is God’s promise, and not David’s promise, to build a house that holds our hopes. It is a promise that ensures that David’s throne will be established in peace forever – a promise brimming with hope and expectation.

The Gospel of Luke captures that hope and expectation in Mary, the bearer of the Davidic heir. Luke hands down to us one of the most beautiful and inspiring accounts of divine-human interaction ever recorded.

“Hail, full of grace!” Says the angel Gabriel, “The Lord is with you . . . Do not be afraid, Mary, for . . . you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.” Mary soon replies, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” What greater promise is there than Mary’s willingness and acceptance to unite God’s will with hers and bear for us God’s presence in human form? This promise of a child cancels all fears and affirms our deepest hopes. Gerard Manley Hopkins captures this inimitable promise in his poem, “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air we Breathe:”

So God was god of old: A mother came to mold Those limbs like ours which are What must make our daystar Much dearer to mankind; Whose glory bare would blind Or less would win man’s mind.

Through her we may see him Made sweeter, not made dim, And her hand leaves his light Sifted to suit our sight.

Mary’s acceptance of God’s promise realizes God’s intimacy. The child of her womb, Jesus, molds our God of old and permits us to witness God’s light and love that would, otherwise, be beyond our comprehension. She sifts God’s light to suit our sight. This ageless intimacy is as much available to us as to Mary 2,000 years ago.

The promise of God’s self offered in this time of hopeful expectation rivets together a torn world. Mary’s protective hand makes sure we see God’s light through the darkness. There is no need to fear, but rather to respond. God continues to call forth Mary’s sacred response from each of us: “May it be done to me according to your word.” David and Mary show us how to respond. They trust in God and remain open to God’s promise. Today’s world seems so twisted with the competing desires of nations, agendas of self-interest, and marginalizing of the powerless that we mute God’s eternal promise and blanket ourselves in isolation and fear. It inhibits our response to our God who dwells among us. Yet, the Christian narrative of hope throws off that blanket and reveals a patient and beckoning God. It is an eternal and inestimable master story. “So deep did Christianity’s wagon wheels wear into the ground of Western culture and consciousness, that nearly every secular wagon that has followed – no mater how determined to travel a different road – has found it nearly impossible not to ride in the same tracks of the faith of old” (Smith, Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture, 72).

God’s promise is thankfully inescapable.

We need David and Mary. We need Advent.

We need Christmas to remind us of our story and encourage us to respond to a God who comes to us everyday waiting for those words, “may it be done to me according to your word.”

There is no greater promise than God’s abiding presence that glues together a fragmented world and heals the hurts that harm us. God has made a promise and it will never be broken, no matter what we may or may not do. Luke’s story of Mary’s Visitation immortalizes not only the inviolable and infinite Divine promise but also the human response. We too, like Mary, can say, “may it be done,” and it will.

Raymond O’Connor chairs the Religious Studies Department and directs the Community Service Program at Stuart Hall High School, San Francisco. He attends Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco.

Annunciation prayer O God, Who didst please that at the message of an Angel Thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant unto Thy suppliants, that we who believe her to be truly the mother of God may be aided by her intercession before Thee Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Guest Commentary We won’t abandon our ‘Old Friends’ Sister Miriam Walsh “The care of the elderly, above all when they pass through difficult moments, must be of great concern to the faithful.” - John Paul 11 (2005) After serving 25 years as a chaplain at Laguna Honda Hospital (LHH), I am appealing for your help at a time “of great concern” for the welfare of our elderly and disabled residents.

For generations, LHH has been a sanctuary where our seniors found peace, support and caring relationships. The staff truly lived their motto “the patient comes first.” Laguna Honda has touched the lives of many San Franciscans. That is why San Franciscans voted to preserve LHH for the skillful and compassionate care of our “Old Friends” - frail, elderly and physically disabled San Franciscans. That was the promise made in the Proposition A campaign of 1999. That promise was soon broken.

By 2000, San Francisco Director of Public Health Dr. Mitchell Katz decided to send unstable psychiatric patients from San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) to LHH. Psychiatrists from SFGH and others sounded the alarm until Mayor Brown halted the plan. Nevertheless, LHH began converting geriatric wards into “Psycho-Social Units” and displacing long-term elderly residents in the process.

In March of 2004 Dr. Katz changed the LHH Admission Policy so that “hard to place” SFGH patients got priority while seniors who could no longer care for themselves were stuck in their homes or other hospitals. As a result, many seniors were sent to nursing homes far from their San Francisco neighborhoods. Instead, LHH was flooded with younger, able-bodied patients from SFGH. Too many were aggressive and disruptive. We had unprecedented violence, drug abuse, crime and psychiatric emergencies - even an arson fire that gutted a 30-bed ward. Our LHH sanctuary felt like a harsh homeless shelter where the most vulnerable shrink in fear. After all this turmoil, a “Social Rehabilitation Ward” was set up with a measly $50,000 grant to take in these SFGH patients. But the seniors who had called it home for many years had to be evicted first. We had social displacement in the name of social rehabilitation.

Our protests were cries in the wilderness until wise friends in local neighborhoods and parishes got involved. Also, LHH received costly fines from State inspectors for endangering vulnerable patients. Mayor Gavin Newsom halted the “Flow Project” in February 2005, but the flow of younger, homeless “psycho-social” patients continues. Our seniors are still struggling to get into LHH. There is now a plan for SFGH to take over LHH to allow SFGH to send any patients they want here. That means San Franciscans served by hospitals other than SFGH will lose access to care at LHH. But LHH belongs to all San Franciscans. In my darkest moments I feel a subtle form of euthanasia is causing vulnerable seniors - our “Old Friends,” to end up in lower quality nursing homes far from their communities.

Younger, able-bodied persons with behavioral problems need specialized care, but LHH is not set up to do so safely. By mixing younger restless patients with elderly and disabled patients, neither group gets the care they deserve. Our City leaders must see both needs and care for them differently. Asking voters to pay $300 million to rebuild LHH, then changing its mission is a double injustice - to our voters and our vulnerable seniors.

A group of concerned persons - “San Franciscans for Laguna Honda” needs your help to gather 10,000 signatures to place a Ballot Initiative before the voters in June 2006. We need volunteers to collect signatures on petition forms. Please help us to ensure that LHH will be a safe and peaceful sanctuary for elderly, frail and physically disabled San Franciscans. This is a matter of great concern.

See our Website: www.SF4LagunaHonda.org or call (415) 386-4934 if you wish to help or make a donation. Thank you.

Sister Miriam Walsh is Pastoral Care Director at Laguna Honda Hospital. She is a member of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart.

Missing Christians

Personal belief

While in Galilee during our recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we passed the village of Naim, the site of one of Our Lord’s most compassionate miracles - the raising from the dead of the widow’s son. The location of the miracle is marked by a lovely church. The church is closed and empty.

There are no Christians in Naim. It is a Moslem village in Israel. If you want to visit the church, you must ask a Moslem family for the keys.

Unless we Christians in the United States do something, this will be the situation for all of the Holy Places in Israel and Palestine - they will be museums without living Christians worshiping in them. The Christians of the Holy Land are being forced to leave by the policies of the Israeli Government, the Wall being built around Palestine, the growing fundamentalism of the Moslem population and the indifference of America’s politicians and leaders, including its Christian leaders. Already less than two percent of the population, the remaining “living stones” of the Holy Land need our help and deserve our support.

John H. McGuckin, Jr. Lieutenant, Northwestern Lieutenancy Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem San Francisco

Fr. Powers, my Jesuit instructor in high school religion, taught that the punishment had to equal the crime in order to have justice. The death penalty, he taught, is justified in cases where a life has been taken.

Christ was crucified, he suffered the death penalty of his day - and he did not speak out against it. We speak of it as the redemptive act. In order to redeem man it was necessary that Jesus be crucified; the punishment equaling the crime. The crime being the sin of Adam and Eve who disobeyed God but did not take a life.

“Williams should not be killed because he is God’s son created in God’s image.” So says Fr. Gerald Coleman in his Guest Commentary of December 9. So, if we believe Fr. Coleman, there can be no punishment for crime because criminals, along with the law abiding, are created in the image of God. Christ certainly did not teach that. Didn’t Christ teach that we have personal responsibility for our actions?

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, chapter 13, cautions us to obey the law of authority or suffer the sword. “For if thou dost what is evil, fear, for not without reason does it carry the sword.”

Bishop Wester states that, “..the death penalty does not protect human life nor promote human dignity.” This seems to contradict Paul’s teaching to the Roman Church. Bishop Wester may have a personal belief that there should be no death penalty but he should not stand as a Bishop of the Church and express his personal belief as Church doctrine. Too often we hear, “The Church teaches...” when a priest is speaking his personal beliefs and using the Church as a shield.

Ron Corkrey Novato Ed. note – “If, however, nonlethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church (2267)

‘Not pleasant business’

L E T T E R S

There is a kind of moral blindness that causes many to call good evil and evil good. As it relates to the death penalty, such people can no longer distinguish between the wanton taking of innocent human life and the execution by the state of a convicted capital defendant. The two are not the same, and an argument that treats them as equal, because in each case a human being is killed, lacks moral clarity. Like the waging of a just war, or killing in self defense, there are times when the taking of life is necessary and appropriate, however unpleasant. In each instance, the imago dei dignity referred to by Fr. Coleman remains. But God instituted government with the solemn duty to deal with wrongdoing, to protect the innocent, to provide for justice. He did not rule out capital punishment, as St. Paul reminds us that government bears the sword for a reason.

(Romans Ch. 13) In fact, He gives the State that power so that the individual need not resort to vengeance and thereby commit murder. This is not pleasant business, and it can be done unjustly (although in California, at least, it seems both rare and fair, as it takes decades to complete the various levels of appellate review). Debate as to when it should be imposed is productive, as are efforts to keep it rare. But in extreme or heinous cases, it is the very dignity of human life that calls out for a penalty that fits the crime.

Al Serrato Millbrae

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Another good source On the subject of Tookie Williams and the death penalty, I’d like to share one of Pope John Paul II’s reflections in his book, “Reasons for Hope.” Under the heading of Merciful Justice, the Holy Father writes: “God, who is always merciful even when he punishes, ‘put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight’ (Gn. 4:15).

He thus gave him a distinctive sign, not to condemn him to the hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill him, even out of a desire to avenge Abel’s death. Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this. And it is precisely here that the paradoxical mystery of the merciful justice of God is shown forth.

“As St. Ambrose writes: ‘God drove Cain out of his presence and sent him into exile far away from his native land, so that he passed from a life of human kindness to one which was more akin to the rude existence of a wild beast. God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide.’”

Mary Pecci San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Catholic San Francisco

17

Guest Commentary

Homosexuality and the priesthood

By Father Raymond J. de Souza In the week since the Vatican released its new “Instruction” on the admission of men with homosexual tendencies to seminaries or to Holy Orders, there has been an impressive amount of commentary on what exactly it means. While the release of a Vatican document is always accompanied by commentators who argue mightily that it does not mean what it in fact plainly says, this time there is some genuine uncertainty about how best to interpret the Instruction — and from quarters which are by no means lacking in fidelity to Church teaching.

The key passage says that “those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture” should not be admitted to seminaries or ordained priests.

The first and third categories seem clear enough. A man who is sexually active with others — men or women — clearly cannot be admitted to the seminary unless and until he has learned to live chastely. As for the “gay culture,” it seems obvious that a potential priest cannot support initiatives which encourage homosexual acts, or even the affirmation of the homosexual orientation as something good in itself.

WHAT DOES “DEEP-SEATED” MEAN? That leaves the second category: “those who present deep-seated homosexual tendencies.”

The first thing to be observed is that the language chosen — after some five years or more of consideration — does not define a “deep-seated” homosexual tendency. It also seems reasonable to conclude that a homosexual tendency which is not “deep-seated” does not constitute a barrier to Holy Orders.

The Instruction makes it clear that bishops, seminary rectors, spiritual directors, and confessors are to make this determination. So, speaking only for myself, how would I apply the distinction between what is deep-seated and what is not?

Given the adolescent environment in North America today, it is not surprising that young men who are not in fact homosexual might have experienced homosexual tendencies.

A youth culture of sexual libertinism, coupled with an assertive promotion of the gay culture in both high schools and on university campuses, makes this a growing phenomenon.

In a different way, this may also apply to places in the world where boys enter preparatory seminaries at a young age. A teenage boy who enters the all-male environment of a seminary, and lives his entire adolescence in such an environment, may experience homosexual tendencies. This is not due to a libertine environment (!) but simply the fact that the male sexual appetite is attracted by what it sees, and in an all-male environment what is seen is other men.

In such cases, it would seem that these tendencies are of the “transitory” nature which the Instruction indicates do not constitute a barrier to ordination if they are overcome for a period of time (three years).

The more difficult case is the man who experiences homosexual tendencies for a prolonged period of time, but lives chastely, unequivocally accepts the Church’s teaching that the homosexual orientation is disordered, and, moreover, wishes to be free

of homosexual tendencies. Does such a man have the “deep-seated” tendencies which are a barrier to seminary admission?

Different answers could be given.

A plausible reading of the Instruction is that “deepseated” is opposed to “transitory,” meaning that a homosexual tendency which endures for a prolonged period is “deepseated.” Some commentators have said that the Instruction judges such men unsuitable for admission to the seminary.

If the tendency is enduring, it is therefore disqualifying.

I would answer slightly differently. I think “deepseated” can plausibly be read as referring to how “deep” the tendency is rooted in the personality.

If a man habitually sees the men around him as objects of sexual desire, that would be a “deep-seated” tendency that would “hinder [him] from relating correctly to men and women,” as the Instruction puts it. If the man understands himself in terms of his homosexual tendencies or orientation, that would also be a “deep-seated” phenomenon, as the personality itself is understood in reference to what is a disordered orientation.

It seems clear that the Instruction rejects as unsuitable for the priesthood those whose identity is defined by what Catholic doctrine regards as a disordered sexual tendency.

It could hardly be otherwise — a man who defines his identity in relation to homosexuality would be defining himself in terms directly contrary to the Christian sexual ethic.

Yet there are also men who experience homosexual tendencies, but for whom such tendencies do not penetrate deep within the personality. The tendencies do not constitute a significant dimension of the man’s identity, and are suffered and struggled against. Does such a man have the “deep-seated” tendencies the Instruction addresses? Clearly, a careful, searching, and honest examination would have to be undertaken, but it appears that admission of such candidates would not violate the letter or the spirit of the Instruction.

Common parlance may call all men who experience homosexual tendencies “gay men,” but it would be more accurate to describe them as men who live with homosexual tendencies. This distinction is considered risible by those for whom sexuality is the dominant force in identity, but it does in fact address the concrete situation of many men. And there is wide variation in the degree to which those tendencies are suffered. It is likely that there are men who would be considered “gay” in the most expansive use of the term, but for whom homosexual tendencies are not a significant part of their identity. Perhaps they are enduring, but they are not “deep-seated”.

TENDENCIES VS. IDENTITY The Instruction demonstrates the Church’s basic disposition toward sexuality — it is vitally important but is not allimportant. In relation to homosexuality, the Church stands foursquare against the cultural winds because she does not accept that a homosexual identity is a good, or even neutral, matter. Inter alia, this latter point extends an implied invitation to those dioceses which have “gay and lesbian ministry” offices to examine whether they in fact, wittingly or not, accept and affirm just that.

The teaching of the Church about the requirements of the

moral law is clear. Because homosexual acts are intrinsically immoral, the desire to engage in them is “disordered.” That does not mean the tendency or orientation is sinful in and of itself (as it may not be voluntary), nor does it mean that those who have such tendencies are ill, or defective, or, above all, lacking in human dignity.

The Church does not believe that sexual appetites constitute the whole of a personality. Indeed, the Church never officially uses the expansive term “gay” or “homosexuals”, but rather the more unwieldy formulation “persons with homosexual tendencies” or “homosexual persons.” The focus is on the person, not the appetite. Sexuality is important, but it is not everything. It is does not constitute an identity.

If nothing else, the Instruction rejects the idea that homosexuality can be a neutral, or even good, identity, as long as homosexual acts are avoided. Perhaps out of a desire to defend the dignity of homosexual persons, many Catholics have advanced the idea that homosexual tendencies are of no different moral quality than heterosexual ones, and that even a homosexual identity can be affirmed or encouraged, as it is at least morally neutral, if not good. That position is not the Catholic one, and the Instruction makes it clear. That’s a hard saying for our culture, but it is the ancient Christian wisdom on sexual ethics, and prospective priests have to be able to live and articulate that.

THE VALUE OF “GAY PRIESTS” The release of the Instruction provoked much muttering that the Vatican was saying that “gay priests,” as the formulation inevitably put it, were no longer welcome, or that their ministry was without value.

That does not logically follow. There are many qualities priests should have, and there are many requirements for admission to the seminary and for Holy Orders. To take a simple example, a seminary would not recommend for ordination a man who was invariably short-tempered and unpleasant. Yet there are many priests who are like that, and no doubt they do some good work. One would not point to the existence of such ill-tempered priests to argue against insisting that seminarians be pleasant and even-tempered.

Even more to the point, a man would not be ordained if he was known to have a girlfriend on the side. There are some ordained priests who do in fact have mistresses or girlfriends.

While it constitutes a grave sin and a source of scandal, we know from experience that some of those priests do outstanding work and are praised for the fruits of their ministry. But the fact that such priests might also do good work does not mean that priestly candidates should not be held to the standard of celibate chastity.

The false criticism that the Instruction constituted an attack on the good work done by “gay priests” was made by Andrew Sullivan in a dramatic fashion. He posted on his website the famous photograph of Fr. Mychal Judge at the World Trade Centre, adding a caption to the effect that Pope Benedict’s had judged Fr. Judge’s work to be of no social value because he was gay (a matter about which there are competing claims).

VATICAN INSTRUCTION, page 22

The Catholic Difference I first noticed the new slavery on the outskirts of Rome.

There, along the back roads of the periferia, you could see today’s slaves: African women, mostly, with a scattering of eastern Europeans, standing along the roadside or hanging out near construction sites. Nearby, usually sitting in a car, was the overseer – or, to get down to cases, the pimp. But whether you call them “prostitutes” or use the Orwellian euphemism, “sex workers,” these women are victims of the 21st century’s version of the slave-trade: trafficking in persons.

It’s a tawdry, multi-billion dollar industry, this human trafficking, and it involves a Dickensian catalogue of horrors from kidnapping and bribery to AIDS and torture and murder.

The man appointed to combat it on behalf of the U.S. government is an old friend, Ambassador John Miller. John has done a lot in his life: he’s been a successful lawyer and investor; he served on the Seattle City Council and was elected four times to the U.S. House of Representatives; he was even a baseball writer for the Seattle Weekly in the summer of 1982, when he shared a byline with...me. But over forty years of an active public life, John Miller has never found anything that so roused his passion as his present job: director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The office was something of a bureaucratic backwater when Miller took over three years ago. No more. Now the office’s annual report, mandated by the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, names names, and in ways that illustrate the magnitude of the problem. Take, for example, the June 2005 entry on Nigeria:

“Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked women and children. Nigerians are trafficked to Europe, the Middle East, and other parts of Africa for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labor, and involuntary domestic servitude. Nigerian girls and women are trafficked for sexual exploitation to Europe – particularly Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands – and other African countries.

Children from Nigeria’s southern and eastern states are trafficked to Nigerian cities and other West Africa countries for exploitation as domestic servants, street hawkers, and forced laborers. Children from Togo and Benin are trafficked to Nigeria for forced labor.

“The Government of Nigeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so...Although the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons began investigating a number of law enforcement officials suspected of trafficking complicity over the last year, no prosecutions were initiated...”

To his astonishment (and anger) Miller has found that many government officials around the world – and not only in the Third World – can’t be bothered with combating trafficking: either because their laws permit prostitution, or because the victims are essentially voiceless, or because they’ve been cut into the profits. Miller has also had serious difficulties with the U.N., whose “peacekeepers” have been guilty of sex abuse crimes against refugees, including minors, in the Congo. Yet John Miller refuses to accept the

cynical view that this shameful exploitation of human beings is so woven into the fabric of various societies that it can never be eradicated: “I once looked into the face of a girl who was rescued. Do George Weigel I tell her that her other life wasn’t bad?”

Miller has seen things he once wouldn’t have believed possible; as he explained to the Seattle Times, “girls and boys are in demand in India because brothel owners want disease-free workers [sic] for their clients.” And he’s had fights with people who ought to know better, including American foundation executives who can’t understand that making money available to “sex-worker associations” for AIDS-prevention programs strengthens the hands of pimps and madams who prey on children. Ideologues have even accused Miller (who’s Jewish) of being a front for a Bush administration attempt to “impose” a “Christian agenda” on the world.

John Miller, however, thinks he’s working on the great human rights issue of our time. He’s right. The nation, and a lot of suffering people, are in his debt.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

JOHN EARLE PHOTO

Fighting the new slavery

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

(CNS PHOTO FROM CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO)

Influenced by Vatican II, Pope Benedict now shapes its implementation

By John Thavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI, a man who was deeply influenced by the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council, now stands in a position to shape the way the church implements its teachings.

In his first sermon as pope in April, he said there should be no doubt that the council and its authoritative rereading of the Gospel would remain the “compass” for his papacy.

“As the years have passed, the conciliar documents have lost none of their timeliness; indeed, their teachings are proving particularly relevant to the new situation of the church and the current globalized society,” he said.

In many ways, Pope Benedict embodies the full spectrum of the Vatican II experience in the church: — As a theological adviser to German Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne, thenFather Joseph Ratzinger attended all four sessions of the 1962-65 council, enthusiastically embracing its early work and its bold approach to renewal.

— He began to have misgivings in later sessions and worried that the council could leave the impression that the church worked like a parliament and that “the faith could be changed.”

— After the council’s conclusion, he cautioned against wrong turns in implementation and eventually helped found a theological journal to counterbalance what he called the “ecclesial politics” approach to theology.

— As the Vatican’s top doctrinal official for nearly 24 years, he worked to curb abuses and clarify the council’s teaching in areas that included theological experimentation, liturgical texts, biblical scholarship, lay ministries, the role of bishops’ conferences, and interreligious and ecumenical dialogue.

American author and scholar George Weigel said that as a young theological expert Father Ratzinger understood a crucial truth about Vatican II: that “aggiornamento,” or church updating, must be based on “ressourcement,” a return to the sources of Christian wisdom and a deepening of the church’s understanding of itself.

“Ratzinger ... understood that the two have to go together — that ‘updating’ without ‘deepening’ turns the church into sim-

ply another voluntary organization dedicated to good works,” Weigel said.

Today, Weigel said, “the greatest test of Pope Benedict as an ‘implementer’ of Vatican II will be his success in finding bishops who embody the council’s vision of the bishop-as-apostle.”

Italian church historian Alberto Melloni said Pope Benedict brought great theological depth to Vatican II and remains a “son of the council” in many ways.

But with his election as pontiff, Melloni said, the implementation of Vatican II has become for Pope Benedict a question of governance and not just of intellectual or theological argumentation.

“What he did and thought at the council was important. But what counts much more now is what he will do as pope, especially in the critical areas of collegiality and ecumenism,” he said.

In the years before his election, Cardinal Ratzinger’s comments about the legacy of Vatican II drew keen attention, especially when he spoke about the liturgy. In 1997, he said the drastic manner in which Pope Paul VI reformed the Mass had caused “enormous harm” to the church. It was not that changes were not needed, Cardinal Ratzinger said; in fact, he said, in many respects the new Roman Missal was an improvement.

The problem in his view was that the old missal was suppressed. Instead of continuity, he said, the old liturgy was demolished and the new Mass constructed from its pieces.

“I am convinced that the crisis in the church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy,” he said.

Cardinal Ratzinger called for a “new liturgical movement that will call to life the real heritage of the Second Vatican Council.”

In 1999 he wrote a book on the topic, saying modern liturgy needs to give greater space to silence, traditional Christian gestures, appropriate music and other elements that promote a reverential attitude.

Cardinal Ratzinger had already stirred debate in the 1990s when he said he agreed with theological arguments for returning the altar to its pre-Second Vatican Council position, in which the priest celebrated Mass facing East and with his back to the congregation. But he said it was probably too late to reverse the change without leaving Catholics more confused than ever.

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

Bishops fill St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Paul VI presides over a meeting of the Second Vatican Council. Sessions were held in the later months of 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965.

Pope John XXIII opened the council in 1962, stating that the goal of the council was to eradicate seeds of discord and to promote peace and unity among humankind.

The remaining three sessions were led by Pope Paul following the death of Pope John in June 1963.

Pope Benedict XVI greets the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square as he leads the Angelus from his apartment window at the Vatican Nov. 20.

The pope took the opportunity to commemorate “Gaudium et Spes,” the final document of the Second Vatican Council.

Likewise, he said a general return to celebration of the Mass in Latin was impossible today, and perhaps not desirable.

Because of his past statements, many Catholics expect Pope Benedict to make sweeping changes in papal liturgies, cutting back on the multicultural elements that featured so prominently under Pope John Paul.

So far, that has not happened. At World Youth Day in Germany, for example, the papal Mass was enlivened by African drums, a sitar and South American panpipes, and an evening prayer service featured a juggler.

Even more than liturgical details, Pope Benedict has always been interested in the theological and ecclesial thinking behind the liturgy. When the council began its dramatic debate on the sources of revelation in 1962, the young Father Ratzinger became a key player.

The discussion on revelation had to do with how Scripture and tradition relate to each other, and how they both relate to the magisterium, the church’s teaching authority. It was a debate for specialists, but with deep repercussions on the way the church understands itself.

In the view of Father Ratzinger, there was a dangerous trend in biblical interpre-

tation that saw Scripture as the entire deposit of the faith — an approach that gave great authority to the interpreters of Scripture and little or none to the magisterium and to church tradition. The biblical interpreters often disagreed, he said, and that made the faith more vulnerable to changing hypotheses and opinions.

As the council deliberated the question, Father Ratzinger prepared a historical paper to show, as he later wrote, that “revelation ... is greater even than the words of Scripture,” and that the church and tradition are both intrinsically involved in revelation.

Many of those arguments ultimately prevailed at the council. Pope Benedict later called the modified Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation one of the outstanding texts of the council — and one that has yet to be fully understood by the church.

In a more general sense, what troubled the future pope in the aftermath of the council was the impression that everything in the church was open to revision and that the secular world’s political approach could be transferred to church decision-making.

He warned against the rise of anti-Roman resentment and the idea of an ecclesial “sovereignty of the people” or “church from

December 16, 2005

(CNS FILE PHOTO)

below” in which the people determine the ply “come together, read the New Testament, definition of “church.” He also worried that and say: ‘We are now the church.’”

He also argued that the council develthe new confidence Vatican II had instilled in theologians was making theologians feel as if oped collegiality among bishops as a theological reality, but that it had been misunthey were no longer subordinate to bishops.

These concerns were reflected in several derstood as a form of power-sharing.

In particular, he questioned the teaching documents issued during Cardinal Ratzinger’s tenure at the Congregation for authority of bishops’ conferences, declarthe Doctrine of the Faith. Most notably, in ing in 1985 that they had “no theological 1984 the congregation cautioned against the basis.” In 1998, a papal document that use of Marxist concepts in liberation theol- Cardinal Ratzinger helped prepare underogy; in 1990 it called on theologians who lined the limits of the authority of bishops’ disagree with church teaching not to use the conferences, saying that doctrinal questions mass media to publish their views or pres- can never be decided by a majority vote. sure for change; and in 1992 it said theoloThe mushrooming number and variety of gians must not overemphasize the autono- lay tasks and ministries in the church also came my of local churches and reduce ecclesial under the careful scrutiny of Cardinal communion to a sociological reality.

Ratzinger. The doctrinal congregation helped Vatican II opened guide the preparation the door to ecumeniof a document in 1997 cal and interreligious that, drawing heavily dialogue, and on Vatican II texts, Cardinal Ratzinger’s praised lay involvedoctrinal congregament in the church but tion had important warned against conqualifications to fusing the roles of make in both areas. laity and ordained In 2000, the doctrinal ministers. On many congregation issued occasions, Cardinal “Dominus Iesus” on Ratzinger insisted that salvation through the primary lay task Christ alone, and a envisioned by Vatican second document on II was to evangelize “sister churches.” and sanctify the world.

Both drew criticism In the hundreds of from the church’s times he has spoken dialogue partners. or written about the By stating that Second Vatican Jesus Christ and the Council, Pope church are necessary Benedict has always for salvation, supported the authori“Dominus Iesus” ty of its teachings. But impressed some he has said these same readers as an exclu- Pope Paul VI offers a blessing at Rome’s teachings require Leonardo da Vinci airport before sionary text — careful study, an eye boarding a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, despite Vatican for nuance and, above in 1967. Pope Paul inaugurated the assurances that it was all, a proper undersimply an expression modern papal practice of world travels. standing of the church of Catholic faith. The and its mission. document on “sister churches” said the term On the whole, the pope has seen the should only be used to describe churches council’s breakthrough in terms of the that have preserved a valid episcopate and church influencing the world, not the world Eucharist, like the Orthodox churches; it was influencing the church. strongly criticized by Anglican and That vision was clearly reflected in the Protestant leaders. doctrinal congregation’s 2003 document on Both documents relied heavily on the Catholics and politics, which said Catholic teachings of Vatican II to bolster their argu- voters and lawmakers must bring their faith ments. “Dominus Iesus” more than 50 to bear on political questions. The text drew times cited the council’s texts, including heavily from the Second Vatican Council’s their assertion of the “unique mediation” of Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Christ in salvation. In unveiling the docu- Modern World. ment, Cardinal Ratzinger said the idea that More than Vatican II’s internal church the church must never insist on the truth of reforms, Pope Benedict has emphasized the its message was “radically different” from council’s wider goal: to bring the faith out what Vatican II intended. of the private sphere and renew it as the In his 1987 book, “Church, Ecumenism driving force of history. and Politics,” Cardinal Ratzinger said that to To understand Vatican II correctly, he understand the council’s teaching on dia- said, one must begin with the first sentence logue one must understand its “core teach- of the Dogmatic Constitution on the ing” on the church as communion. He urged Church: “Christ is the light of all nations.” a closer look at the language of Vatican II The point, he said, is that the church begins texts to counter the idea that a group can sim- by talking about Christ, not about itself.

Catholic San Francisco

19

Jesuit expert continues to examine Vatican II’s implementation

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — From a very specific perspective, a Jesuit who served as a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council continues to examine its deliberations, outcome and implementation.

Forty years after serving as a “peritus” or expert at the council, Jesuit Father Paolo Molinari is shepherding the sainthood cause of Pope Paul VI, the pope who presided over three of the council’s four sessions and oversaw its implementation until his death in 1978.

Father Molinari told Catholic News Service that Pope John XXIII set up the council and “thought it would be a happy family gathering.

But it was not only that.

“The council launched discussions that required the church to deal with a myriad of theological issues that already had begun to be debated by some bishops and theologians, and not always in a way consistent with church teaching,” he said.

“The council lasted four years and, in between one session and another, there was much discussion in an attempt to clarify the issues,” Father Molinari said.

To further complicate matters, the media covered the process at a level completely unknown at previous councils. Many of the debates and attempts to influence the bishops took place in newspapers and magazines rather than on the council floor, in small group meetings or through private correspondence.

The public discussion sharpened the differences between so-called liberals and conservatives by making it appear that some people in the church thought everything really was open to debate, Father Molinari said.

For the 81-year-old Jesuit, the council’s focus on Scripture is the key to understanding the positive changes in the church over the past 40 years.

By strongly supporting biblical scholarship, promoting Bible reading and study among the faithful and raising its stature in the Mass, he said, the council helped make all Catholics familiar with the main themes of God’s revelation.

Knowing “how God has loved and cared for humanity, his coming to us in Jesus Christ and Christ’s giving himself up to death for us facilitated

a new, stronger relationship with Jesus Christ,” the Jesuit said.

The focus on a relationship with Jesus, lived within the community of the church, strengthened Catholics’ understanding of the gift of the Eucharist and of what Christian life is meant to be: “It is a unity arising from love lived in a vocation of selfgiving,” whether in the priesthood, religious life, marriage or as a single person, he said.

Father Molinari said the scriptural vision of God creating the world, accompanying his people as they move through it, calling them to act uprightly and to care for the weak also has had huge implications for the way the church and its individual members relate to the world.

Following the example of Jesus, he said, the council affirmed that “when money, governments, knowledge or even religion are used to exploit people, it must be criticized.”

While the council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Lumen Gentium,” spoke of the church as the “people of God” or as a “pilgrim” church, he said, “the ‘body of Christ’ was the most important expression: The life that flows from Jesus, the head, unites us with each other and sends us out into the world.”

As for the ongoing debate about what the council intended for the church, Father Molinari said a certain lack of prudence was demonstrated even before and during the council by those who wanted nothing to change and those who wanted everything to change.

He said that far from trying to turn the clock back many church leaders and faithful today are trying to recuperate “certain values and practices that were put aside, or even ridiculed, mainly because the way they were expressed no longer spoke to people.”

“It is not that these people say ‘We have gone too far,’ but that they say ‘Maybe we are missing something,’” he said.

The need for moments of silence and for an appreciation of the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist are examples, he said. So is the decision to publish a catechism of church teaching accessible and intelligible to modern men and women.

“The Holy Spirit is active in the church, guiding the wise activity of those who are neither closed-minded nor rebels,” Father Molinari said.

Pope John Paul II greets Rabbi Elio Toaff at Romeís main synagogue April 13, 1986. The meeting marked the beginning of a new era in Catholic-Jewish relations. It was the first time a pope had entered the Rome synagogue.

(CNS FILE PHOTO BY ARTURO MARI)

The Second Vatican Council ended on Dec. 8, 1965. This story is part of a series marking the 40-year anniversary of Vatican II. The first story in the series, “After 40 years, Vatican II continues to resound throughout the church,” appeared in the Dec. 9 issue of Catholic San Francisco.

20

Catholic San Francisco

Advent Opportunities Fridays: Sacrament of Reconciliation, 5 – 6 p.m., at Our Lady of Angels Church, 1721 Hillside Drive in Burlingame. Call (650) 347-7768.

Through Dec. 23: Simbang Gabi, a Filipino tradition of the Advent season at St. Gregory Church, 28th Ave. and Hacienda in San Mateo at 7 p.m. Masses continue daily at the same time. A collaborative effort of St. Gregory, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Luke, St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Timothy parishes.

Dec. 16: ‘Twas the week before Christmas! St. Charles Parish, 880 Tamarack Ave. in San Carlos, presents its 4th Annual Christmas Concert at 7:30 p.m. Featuring the Adult and Children’s Choirs, the concert will celebrate the rich heritage of Advent and Christmas music - carols both old and new, some for singing and some for listening. Claire Giovannetti conducts. Admission is free. An offering will be taken for the support of the music programs.

Dec. 17: Advent Carols and Readings, featuring the Schola Cantorum of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi at St. Anselm Church, 97 Shady Lane in Ross at 7 p.m. Free admission. Donations accepted.

Dec. 18: Amahl and the Night Visitors at 2:30 p.m. in Old St. Mary’s Church, Grant and California in San Francisco. General Admission; $15, Seniors/Students $10, Children under 12 free.

Proceeds to benefit Old St. Mary’s Restoration.

Dec. 18, 19: Festival of Light, an annual Christmas Concert by Novato neighbor parishes Our Lady of Loretto and St. Anthony of Padua will be presented December 18th at St. Anthony’s 1000 Cambridge St. and December 19th at Our Lady of Loretto, 1806 Novato Blvd. Both curtains are at 7:30 p.m. Call (415) 897-2121 or (415) 883-2177.

Admission is free. Donations are accepted.

Dec. 21 through Dec. 25 and Jan. 8: Live Nativity scene at Our Lady of the Pillar Church, Kelly and Church St. in Half Moon Bay. Features live music of the season. For specific times call Mel Schwing at (650) 726-6765. Sponsored by Knights of Columbus.

St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir will perform Handel’s “Messiah”, Part I, December 7, at 7:30 p.m. in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough and Geary in San Francisco, with a repeat performance on Sunday, December 11, at 3 p.m. in St. Raphael’s Church, 5th Ave and A St, San Rafael. Tickets will be available at the door for $15 for general admission and $10 for seniors and students.

Call (415) 567-2020, ext. 213 for more information.

Do you have a few hours each week to spare? St. Anthony Foundation can use your help. For more than 54 years, St. Anthony Foundation has worked to provide for the physical and emotional needs of the poor and homeless. A staple of its12 programs is the support of more than 300 volunteers. If you are interested in sharing the gift of time with St. Anthony Foundation in its free Dining Room or other programs, please call (415) 241- 2600 for more information. Weekday volunteers are especially needed - www.stanthonysf.org.

St. Anthony Padua Dining Room in Menlo Park needs volunteers Wed., Thurs, and Sat. from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help prepare and serve noon meals. More than 500 people daily are helped by the program. Call (650) 365-9664.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco needs your help at its Help Desk. Service includes sorting donations and helping clients. If anyone would like to volunteer - also small groups of volunteers one Saturday a month - they should call (415) 202-9955.”

St. Vincent de Paul of San Mateo County needs Spanish/English-speaking volunteers to answer phones in 2 – 3 hour shifts between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. at their offices, 50 No. B St., San Mateo.

Volunteers do intake of clients’ requests, log the call and enter into Access.

Come be a valuable part of a team assisting employees to further the mission and values of the Sisters of Mercy. A variety of volunteer opportunities are available on their spacious and beautiful campus in Burlingame. Please call the HR/Volunteer Coordinator at (650) 340-7417 or email: cmoore@mercyburl.org for more information.

December 16, 2005 San Mateo County: St. Catherine of Sienna, Burlingame. Call Debbie Simmons at 650-558-1015; St. Dunstan, Millbrae. Call Barbara Cappel at 650-291628;. Good Shepherd, Pacifica. Call Sr. Carol Fleitz at 650-355-2593; Our Lady of Mercy, Daly City. Call Barbara Cantwell at 650-755-0478; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Redwood City. Call Parish at 650-366-3802; St. Robert, San Bruno. Call Sr. Patricia at 650-589-2800.

Marin County: St. Anselm, San Anselmo. Call Brenda MacLean at 415-454-7650; St. Isabella, San Rafael. Call Pat Sack at 415-472-5732; Our Lady of Loretto, Novato. Call Sr. Jeanette at 415-897-2171.

San Francisco: St. Dominic. Call Sr. Anne at 415567-7824; St. Finn Barr (Bilingual). Call Carmen Solis at 415-584-0823; St. Gabriel. Call Elaine Khalaf at 415-564-7882.

Young Widow/Widower Group: St. Gregory, San Mateo. Call Barbara Elordi at 415-614-5506.

Ministry to Parents: Our Lady of Angels, Burlingame. Call Ina Potter at (650) 347-6971 or Barbara Arena at (650) 344-3579.

Children’s Grief Group: St. Catherine, Burlingame.

Call Debbie Simmons at 650-558-1015.

Information regarding grief ministry in general call Barbara Elordi at 415-614-5506.

Datebook

Returning Catholics

No grizzlies in the bunch of bears collected by students at St. Veronica Elementary School. The school’s Student Council coordinated the effort.

“Our teddy bears went to a school in Mississippi that opened its doors for the first time since Hurricane Katrina on November 1st,” said Janet Burke, first grade teacher at the school. “There was a teddy bear on each of the students’ desks, ready to give a great big hug!” Top from left: Father Ted Shipp, Sean Evans, Marni Welch, Stefani Romagnoli, Tobin Galang, Brendan Dimech, Anjalee Behti, Janice Perez, Andrew Godin. Middle from left: Alex Flores, Lisa Dimech, Kayla Fanfelle, Joshua Flores, Francis Gloria, Haley Fanfelle, Victoria Vallecorse, Bernadette Rabuay. Bottom from left: Sean Campbell, Louis Langi, Joey Hoyt.

The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi 610 Vallejo Street, (415) 983-0405 ext. 14 ~ www.ScholaSF.org Dec. 18: Christmas in the City at 4 p.m. Annual Carol Concert by Schola Cantorum ~ Early seating is recommended.

Dec. 24: Festival of Lessons and Carols at 4 p.m. with 11.30 p.m. Vigil followed by Midnight Mass of Christmas.

Dec. 25: Christmas Day Mass at 12: 15 p.m.

Dec. 31: Organ Recital by John Renke at10.15 p.m. followed by Sung Mass at 11.00 p.m. and Blessing of the City at Midnight.

Jan. 1: Feast of Mary the Mother of God with Mass at 12.15 p.m.

Jan. 8: The Epiphany of the Lord with Mass at 12:15 p.m. and Solemn Vespers at 3:15 p.m. and Epiphany Carol Service at 4 p.m.

Sundays: Concerts at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough and Geary St., SF at 3:30 p.m. Call (415) 567-2020 ext.

213. Open to the public. Admission free. December 18: Christoph Tietze, Organist; December 25: NO RECITAL; January 1: NO RECITAL; January 22, Justin Bischof (New York), Organist; January 29: NO RECITAL Sundays: Concerts at 4 p. m. at National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, Vallejo and Columbus, SF. Call (415) 983-0405 or www.shrinesf.org. Open to the public. Admission free.

Reunions Dec. 27, 28, 29: California Classic basketball tournament co-hosted by Mercy High School, Burlingame and Mercy, San Francisco! All schools in the country affiliated with the Sisters of Mercy have been invited. Schools from Kentucky, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania will be represented. Tournament features a Welcome Reception and Mass, a gift exchange, and14 games in the Mercy, SF’s McAuley Pavilion. “Celebrate the Circle of Mercy through Basketball.”

Shows/Entertainment

Single, Divorced, Separated

January 15: Mozart’s The Magic Flute at 2:30 p.m. in Old St. Mary’s Church, Grant and California in San Francisco. General Admission $15, Seniors/Students $10, Children under 14 free.

Proceeds to benefit Old St. Mary’s Restoration.

1st and 3rd Tues.: Noontime Concerts – 12:30 p.m.

- at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, 660 California St. at Grant, SF. $5 donation requested. Call (415) 288-3800.

Dec. 17: Annual Potluck Christmas and Ornament Exchange at St. Mary’s Cathedral Conference Center, Gough and Geary Blvd. in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m. Call Vonnie at (650) 873-4236.

Catholic San Francisco

Consolation Ministry Grief Groups meet at the following parishes.

Please call numbers shown for more information.

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Visit: Venice, Florence, Assisi, Rome (Papal Audience), Siena St. Peter’s Basilica

For a FREE brochure on these pilgrimages contact: Catholic San Francisco

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Spiritual Director Visit: Paris, Lisbon, Santarem, Fatima, Coimbra, Alba de Torme, Avila, Burgos, Loyola, Pamplona, Javier, Lourdes

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Visit: Paris, Lisieux, Normandy, Versailles, Chartres, Nevers, Paray-Le-Monial, Ars, Lyon, Toulouse and Lourdes.

Datebook is a free listing for parishes, schools and non-profit groups. Please include event name, time, date, place, address and an information phone number. Listing must reach Catholic San Francisco at least two weeks before the Friday publication date desired.

Mail your notice to: Datebook, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, S.F. 94109, or fax it to (415) 614-5633.

May 2 – 12 , 2006

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Wednesdays in January: Notre Dame des Victoires Church, 566 Bush St., between Stockton and Grant, at 6 p.m. followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. “We especially invite persons in the financial district and others to use this time in the middle of the week to help them stay focused on their relationship with God,” the parish said.

1st Fri. at 8 p.m. at Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame with Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan.

Call (650) 340-7452; Church of the Nativity, 210 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park at 7:30 p.m. Call Deacon Dominic Peloso at (650) 322-3013.

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April 18 – 28, 2006 only

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Programs for Catholics interested in returning to the Church, have been established at the following parishes: Marin County: St. Hilary, Tiburon, Mary Musalo, (415) 435-2775; St. Anselm, Ross, call (415) 4532342; St. Sebastian, Greenbrae, Jean Mariani at (415) 461-7060; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Mill Valley, Rick Dullea at (415) 388-4190; St. Mary Star of the Sea, Sausalito, Lloyd Dulbecco at (415) 331-7949.

San Francisco: Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, SF, Michael Adams at (415) 695-2707; St. Philip the Apostle, 725 Diamond St. at Elizabeth/24th, SF. Call (415) 282-0141; St. Dominic, SF, Lee Gallery at (415) 221-1288; Holy Name of Jesus, SF, (415) 664-8590.

San Mateo County: St. Bartholomew, San Mateo, Dan Stensen at (650) 344-5665; St. Catherine of Siena, Burlingame, Silvia Chiesa at (650) 685-8336; Our Lady of Angels, Burlingame, Holy Names Sister Pat Hunter at (650) 375-8023; St. Dunstan, Millbrae, Dianne Johnston at (650) 697-0952; Our Lady of the Pillar, Half Moon Bay, Meghan at (650) 726-4337; St. Peter, Pacifica, Sylvia Miles at (650) 355-6650, Jerry Trecroci at (650) 355-1799, Frank Erbacher at (650) 355-4355; St. Matthew, San Mateo. Jim Shea at (650) 344-7622.

Lourdes

(Registration as a Seller of Travel does not constitute approval by the State of California)

Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

21

Media and Culture

Relax, it’s only a fairy tale ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is a new film based on the Narnia children’s books by English writer C.S. Lewis. According to an unnamed Disney executive in a recent issue of the New York Times, Narnia will provide the company with a “Christian niche,” among the lucrative fantasy “franchises” such as “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings.” Since 80 percent of Americans claim to be Christian, this would be pretty big niche.

However, it seems likely that the executive meant the “evangelical” Christian niche and thus was adopting the evangelical presumption that only those who believe in the literal word-for-word interpretation of the Bible can claim to be Christian. Thus a tedious and contemptuous article in the New Yorker equated the popularity of Lewis with his teaching of doctrines that appeal to evangelicals.

I confess that such ignorance gives me a headache.

C.S. Lewis was not a Christian in the sense of the word that “evangelicals” insist upon. He was an Anglican who sometimes skirted, in his writings at any rate, dangerously close to the thin ice of Catholicism. Indeed, many in my generation of Catholics simply assumed he was one of us. But even as an Anglican he would cer-

EWTN Christmas specials Christmas Season programming on EWTN, the 24hour Catholic TV network, includes a live telecast of Midnight Mass from St. Peter’s Square with Pope Benedict XVI, Dec. 24 at 3:00 p.m. An encore telecast airs Dec. 25 at 5:00 a.m. Choral meditations and the Solemn Mass of Christmas Eve from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is another live special, Dec. 24 at 7:00 p.m. The annual Christmas Concert of the Catholic University Student Choir in Washington, D.C., airs Dec. 22 at 8:00 p.m. and Dec. 25 at 5:00 p.m.

EWTN is carried on Comcast Digital Channel 229; RCN Channel 80; DISH Satellite Channel 261; and Direct TV Channel 422. Comcast Airs EWTN on Channel 70 in Half Moon Bay and on Channel 74 in southern San Mateo County.

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tainly fall out of the realm of the “saved” when the Rapture blasts all of us who do not believe in word-forword inerrancy into oblivion.

I hasten to add that not all evangelicals claim a monopoly on Christianity. Indeed, only half of those in the evangelical denominations believe in that kind of biblical literalism, and a smaller proportion believe that the rest of us will be vaporized on the day of the Rapture. Moreover, they are certainly within their rights to claim that those who disagree with them about the Bible are not “Christian” and that C.S. Lewis is a “Christian” writer. If his quasi-Catholic work helps them in their religious life, then more power to them.

I wish merely to make two observations. While I leave to professional movie critics like my colleague Roger Ebert (who is also destined as I am for vaporization) an evaluation of Narnia as film, I insist that the Narnia stories —charming nursery tales for young and old — deserve a much broader audience than just biblical fundamentalists. Better or worse than “Harry Potter”? That question simply does not compute — though they’re both about the struggle between good and evil.

Secondly, it seems to me that the evangelicals slip dangerously close to Catholic idolatry when they embrace a wondrous allegory as a summary of the biblical story. Jesus is not and never was a lion like Aslan in the film. To interpret him as a lion is to go light years beyond literal, word-for-word inerrancy. The evangelical enthusiasm about the sufferings of Jesus in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” put them one step away, it seemed to me, from importing crucifixes and Stations of the Cross into their churches. I’m afraid that their enthusiasm for both films shows just how seductive the Catholic temptation is. We delight in pictures

and stories and allegories and symbols and signs because they appeal to the whole human person and not just to the rigid, rational mind.

We are a church designed for the media Fr. Andrew age with its deluge of Greeley pictures and stories — though we usually don’t know what to do with the opportunity.

There are certainly risks in this Catholic imagination, superstition and idolatry among others — though it does make the world a warmer and a more human place.

Gibson’s imagination is certainly Catholic, though perhaps with a certain masochistic twist. In his retelling of the Gospel in allegorical form, C.S. Lewis goes back to the miracle and morality plays of the Middle Ages, in a sense as if the Reformation never happened.

However, I think someone should warn the evangelicals that they are playing with, one should excuse the expression, fire. They are drifting into an imaginative world where the Whore of Babylon lives and dominates.

They had better beware. They are sliding towards oblivion on the day of the Rapture.

On the other hand, many Catholics ashamed of their imaginative heritage may be drifting in the opposite direction.

This article originally appeared in the Chicago Sun Times.

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Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Children’s books for Christmas gift-giving

Vatican instruction . . .

■ Continued from page 17 I have a certain attachment to that photograph myself. It hangs in my office. In fact, I ordered several copies and had them framed as ordination gifts for my classmates. In the photograph I saw a priest who emptied himself to the very end. I thought it Providentially important that the first registered death at the World Trade Center was that of a Catholic priest. The photograph, so evocative of the deposition from the Cross, spoke vividly about the priest acting in persona Christi.

Mr. Sullivan sees a gay man first. I saw a priest. I didn’t even know that some claimed he was gay when I ordered the photograph. When I discovered that afterwards, it did not change my mind about the value of the photograph, or of Fr. Judge’s witness. To say that this Instruction puts that in question is tendentious.

On the subject of “gay priests” one cannot overlook what the Instruction delicately phrases as “the current situation.” In 2002, while the current document was already in preparation, the sexual-abuse crisis hit. There were polemics on all sides of that, leading the American bishops to commission a comprehensive, independent study, which examined some 10,667 cases from 1950 to 2002. The study revealed that 81 percent of all cases involved priests abusing boys or adolescent males. While the independent commissioners refrained from asserting any causal link, noting that many priests with a homosexual orientation served well, they highlighted the high preponderance of homosexual abuse as an item requiring attention. This Instruction was not motivated by the sex-abuse crisis, but it can legitimately be considered part of the wider response.

Father Raymond J. de Souza is a chaplain at Queen’s University in Ontario. This article originally appeared in National Review Online.

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Handyman

NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR

All Mfg. Warranty: Rebates and Special Dealer Finacing goes to Registered Owner/s P.O. Box 214 San Bruno, CA 94066

•Photo Restoration Repair worn, torn, faded or otherwise imperfect photos.

• DVD Slideshows Put your photos to music and watch them on your television.

• DVD Home Movies Add special effects to make your videos look professional.

GREAT GIFTS FOR THE HOLIDAYS www.zappiaimaging.com

415-205-9971

PLUMBING

Painting & Remodeling

CHIMNEY CLEANING SPECIAL!

HOLLAND Plumbing Works San Francisco ALL PLUMBING WORK PAT HOLLAND CA LIC #817607

Contractor inspection reports and pre-purchase consulting

Handyman

Expert Plumbing Repairs ●

REAL ESTATE SPECIALIZING IN SAN MATEO COUNTY REAL ESTATE If I can be of service to you, or if you know of anyone who is interested in buying or selling a home, please do not hesitate to call me . . .

Carpentry, Cabinetry, Painting,Refinishing Floors and Furniture, Door & Window Instal.,Cement Work.

Se habla Español & Tagalog.

Serving also the East Bay, Contra Costa,&Marin Counties

415-239-8491 not a licensed contractor

NOTICE TO READERS Licensed contractors are required by law to list their license numbers in advertisments.

The law also state that contractors performing work totaling $500 or more must be statelicensed. Advertisments appearing in this newspaper without a license number indicate that the contractor is not licensed.

For more information, contact:

Contractors State License Board 800-321-2752

BONDED & INSURED

415-205-1235

•Interiors •Exteriors •Kitchens •Baths

Today

General Repairs Clean Drains & Sewers Water Heaters ●

●

SANTI PLUMBING & HEATING

FAMILY OWNED

415-661-3707

Lic. # 663641

24 HR

Plumbing • Fire Protection • Certified Backflow

John Bianchi Phone: 415.468.1877 Fax: 415.468.1875 100 North Hill Drive, Unit 18 • Brisbane, CA 94005

* Parishioner of St. Gregory’s Church, San Mateo

Lic. No. 390254

MIKE TEIJEIRO Realtor (650) 523-5815 m.teijeiro@remax.net

SUPER ROOTER, INC. YOUR PAYLESS PLUMBING

HOUSE CLEANING Commercial / Residental General Cleaning / Spring Cleaning Move in / Move out Weekly / bi-weekly / monthly

FREE ESTIMATES ● 415-370-4341

COMPANY MISSION OUR

FAMILY AND OUR EMPLOYEES MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO GIVE EACH CUSTOMER A PROFESSIONAL SERVICE.

LIC. #747796

• DRAIN-SEWER CLEANING SERVICE • WATER HEATERS • TOILETS • COPPER REPIPING • SEWER REPLACEMENT • GAS PIPES

PROMPT AND UNPARALLELED SERVICE

(415) 668-1960

OR

• Relationships • Addictions

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Over 25 years experience

St. Robert’s Parish San Bruno

CALL 415-485-4090

When Life Hurts It Helps To Talk Dr. Daniel J. Kugler

photo restoration and design

CHIMNEY CLEANING

974 Ralston Ave. #6, Belmont, CA 94002

• Family • Work • Depression • Anxiety

zappia imaging

John Holtz Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980

(650) 355-4926

WHAT I BELIEVE, by Norma Fox Mazer. Harcourt Inc. (Orlando, Fla., 2005). 176 pp., $15.

From the very first page (“Memo to Myself”), young readers will be drawn into the life of Vicki Marnet, who struggles as her father loses his job and her family moves to an apartment.

Through the pages of Vicki’s journal — which includes memos, lists and a variety of poetry — the reader sees events through Vicki’s eyes. Mazer has captured Vicki’s struggles, emotions — and misdeeds — in an incredibly ingenious way. (ages 10-14).

MUSIC FOR THE END OF TIME, written by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Beth Peck. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (Grand Rapids, Mich., 2005). 32 pp., $17.

This is the biography of French composer Olivier Messiaen, who was shipped off to a German prison camp during World War II. Messiaen spent several hours a day composing “Quartet for the End of Time,” which he and three friends eventually performed for a prison camp audience. Bryant has captured the sense of Messiaen’s need to compose; Peck’s pastel illustrations will stir the reader’s imagination (ages 8-11).

For Advertising Information Call 415-614-5642 E-mail: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

Lic # 778332

Call (650) 757-1946 Cell (415) 517-5977

JINGLE BELLS, told and illustrated by Iza Trapani.

Charlesbridge (Watertown, Mass., 2005). 28 pp., $15.95.

“Jingle Bells” is one of the best-illustrated Christmas books this season. Trapani’s watercolors and parody of the famous carol take children to places such as Mexico, Philippines, Italy and Kenya to learn how Christmas is celebrated. The book is multicultural, colorful and full of charming illustrations; it makes an especially nice read-aloud book (ages 3-10).

A FAITH LIKE MINE, by Laura Buller. DK Publishing Inc. (New York, 2005). 80 pp. $19.99.

This book is a true treasure, looking at the world’s religions through the eyes of children. Page after page of detailed, colorful photographs show ceremonies such as a Hindu wedding, Buddhist festivals, a Jewish bat mitzvah or a pilgrimage to Mecca. Facing pages are almost in scrapbook style, with photos and explanations of ceremonies interspersed with photos of children who tell the stories in a personal way. From Catholicism to Sikhism, traditional beliefs to Zoroastrianism, it covers important feasts and festivals and teaches what children of each faith believe (ages 7-up).

DOES GOD EVER SLEEP? by St. Joseph Sister Joan Sauro. Skylight Paths Publishing (Woodstock, Vt., 2005). 32 pp., $8.99.

The nature photos are beautiful; the pictures of sleeping children and crayon illustrations are appealing. But the best part about this book is its simple, rhythmic text: “Then comes a breeze, God’s singing in the trees, ‘Hush a bye, hush a bye,’ lullaby of leaves,” or “Then God turns on the moon and walks softly around, blessing the sleepers in city and town.” (ages 2-5).

SERVICE DIRECTORY

– Senior Discount –

Painting, roof repair, fence (repair/ build) demolition, carpenter, gutter (clean/ repair), skylight repairs, landscaping, gardening, hauling, moving, janitorial. All purpose.

Reviewed by Barb Fraze, Catholic News Service

(650) 342-7556

EMAIL ADDRESS: SUPERROOTERINC@AOL.COM

Confidential • Compassionate • Practical (415) 921-1619 1537 Franklin Street • San Francisco, CA 94109

Do you want to be more fulfilled in love and work – but find things keep getting in the way?

Unhealed wounds can hold you back - even if they are not the “logical” cause of your problems today. You can be the person God intended.

Inner Child Healing Offers a deep spiritual and psychological approach to counseling: ❖ 30 years experience with individuals, couples and groups ❖ Directed, effective and results-oriented ❖ Compassionate and Intuitive ❖ Supports 12-step ❖ Enneagram Personality Transformation

Lila Caffery, MA, CCHT San Francisco: 415.337.9474 Belmont: 650.888.2873 Complimentary phone consultation www.InnerChildHealing.com

Tell our advertisers you saw their ad in Catholic San Francisco!

FLOORS

December 16, 2005

chiropractor KARL A. GILJUM, D.C. Doctor of Chiropractic Providing quality not quantity care 500 Sutter St. #601 San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 706-1920

Caregiver Available Experienced caregiver available, excellent references, 12 yrs. nursing experience, available day and evenings. Please Call (415) 374-1834.

❑ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin ❑ Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Please return form with check or money order for $25 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us.

Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days.

Thank You St. Jude.

Never known to fail.

You may publish.

M.S.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Make 1 wish that you want. Make 2 impossible wishes. Then pray 9 Hail Mary’s for 9 consecutive days.

You may publish this after the 9th day. Hail Mary you are full of grace. The Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among all women. And Blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. This never fails.

Believe and pray it with all your heart.

SHAR

SAN MATEO COUNTY

WILLIAM L. GALLAGHER, D.D.S.

MISSION PLAZA DENTAL

FAMILY DENTISTRY 2345 Noriega Street

(415) 731-0816

WEST PORTAL FAMILY DENTISTRY Caring For and Enhancing Your Smile

Prayer to St. Jude

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

M.A.S.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need. Oh Mary, conceived without sin.

Pray for us (3X).

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X).

Say prayers 3 days.

J.P.

(415) 665-8397

REY P. JOVES, DMS 6879 Mission St., Daly City

(650) 756-8400

●

Pay starts at $10.50 / hr & $115 / day plus performance based bonus

A DENTAL SPA

(415) 563-2717

MONTEREY DENTAL OFFICE

DENTAL OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE 3500 Callan Blvd.

South San Francisco, CA First Floor space available

749 Monterey Blvd.

San Francisco, CA 94127 (415) 239-9140

Call Charley Haggarty (650) 344-3044

DENTISTS: Reach over 215,000 readers of Catholic San Francisco in our monthly Dental Directory.

Call Mary Podesta (415) 614-5644 or e-mail: podestam@sfarchdiocese.org

We are looking for you.

Work Full or Part-time in San Francisco – Marin County • Provide non medical elder care in the home • Generous benefit package Fax your resume to: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN 415-435-0421 Send your resume: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Special Needs Nursing, Inc. 98 Main Street, #427 Tiburon, Ca 94920

– CAMPUS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – The Sisters of Mercy Burlingame Regional Congregation is looking for an individual to be responsible for the administration, management and strategic planning for the multi-purpose Campus in a manner consistent with the mission of the Sisters of Mercy and goals of the organization. The candidate must have a Bachelors degree in Business Administration or related field. A Masters Degree is preferred in the same filed or a Non Profit Administration. Minimum of 5 years experience in executive management with strong operations background required. Previous experience in managing / coordinating multiple budgets / departments required. Previous experience in a not-for-profit and/or religious organization preferred. This is a full-time, benefited position with a competitive salary rate.

Qualified applicants may send their resumes on or before December 23, 2005 to: Sisters of Mercy, Attn: HR Department, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010, or fax to (650) 373-4509, or e-mail cthibodeaux@mercyburl.org.

CLASSIFIED AD INFORMATION

Northern California's Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Lic.# OB 27214

• Honest • Generous • Compassionate • Make a Difference • Respectful

Specializing in Cosmetic Procedures including Invisalign Invisible Braces, and Zoom!

2 Teeth Whitening.

801 Brewster Avenue, Suite 255 Redwood City, CA 94063 650.367.4967 www.drbarthman.com

We are: One of the largest marketers of financial products in North America, looking for people who want to succeed.

We offer an excellent educational system to teach you our business, a comprehensive support network, and competitive products that are highly desirable to most consumers. Candidates should: Desire an excellent income, be committed to working hard, and posses a strong desire to succeed.

Special Needs Companion Services

(650) 756-6968

and comfort come together

SALES MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITY

For more information, contact Primerica Financial Services N. Margriet Rensch 866-247-2466

Please call 408-829-3890

DIANE POOLER, D.D.S.

General Dentist

Cosmetic & Family Dentistry Modern, State-of-the-Art Office Special Discounts for Seniors, Low Income Families & Students

PT / FT / Live In positions available

Smiles are a gift in any language.

DOUGLAS D. BOUCHER, D.D.S. 825 OAK GROVE AVE., MENLO PARK (650) 325-8030

Must have 2 years of experience working directly with elderly

●

FAMILY DENTISTRY

EDWARD JEAN E. BARTHMAN, D.D.S. WALTER, DDS Where beauty, health, 2427 Chestnut Street San Francisco, CA 94123

Visiting Angels is looking for reliable and dependable caregivers to assists elderly.

Evenings & Weekend Appointments Most Insurance Accepted

2033 TARAVAL STREET

Call 1-800-675-5051, Fax resume: 707-258-1195

Crowns Bridges Dentures Bonding New Patients Welcome

FAMILY DENTISTRY

St. Jude Novena May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us.

Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days.

Thank You St. Jude.

Never known to fail.

You may publish.

Fillings Root Canal Therapy

66 San Pedro Rd., #B Daly City, CA 94014

Family, Cosmetics, Implant Dentistry

This is a Career Opportunity!

• Generous Commissions • Minimal Travel • Excellent Benefit Package • Stong Office Support • Work in Your Community

– FAMILY DENTISTRY –

26 West Portal Ave., #4 San Francisco (415) 661-7779

DR. ERICH K. HABELT

For The Largest Publisher of Catholic Church Bulletins

●

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY

\

Holy Spirit, you who make me see everything and who shows me the way to reach my ideal.

You who give me the divine gift of forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me. I, in this short dialogue, want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you no matter how great the material desires may be. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. Amen. You may publish this as soon as your favor is granted. D.V.G.

Oh, Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near Kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance. Help me in my present and urgent petition. In return I promise to make you be invoked.

Say three our Fathers, three Hail Marys and Glorias. St. Jude pray for us all who invoke your aid. Amen.

This Novena has never been known to fail. This Novena must be said 9 consecutive days. Thanks.

B.G.

PIANO LESSONS BY

CAROL FERRANDO. Conservatory training, masters degree, all levels of students.

CALL (415) 921-8337.

DENTAL DIRECTORY

Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp.

St. Jude Novena

Piano Help Wanted Lessons

Organist

Please confirm your event before contracting music!

Your prayer will be published in our newspaper

\

Francisco

For Information Call: 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 Email: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

Worship Services, Catholic Experience Marie DuMabeiller 415-441-3069, Page: 823-3664 VISA, MASTERCARD Accepted

Cost $25

23

Classifieds

ORGANIST WEDDINGS • FUNERALS

If you wish to publish a Novena in the Catholic San Francisco You may use the form below or call 415-614-5640

Select One Prayer: ❑ St. Jude Novena to SH ❑ Prayer to St. Jude

San

ADVERTISING SALES

PUBLISH A NOVENA Pre-payment required Mastercard or Visa accepted

Catholic

Catholic San Francisco

DEADLINE FRIDAY 12 NOON

TO PLACE AN AD: By phone, call (415) 614-5642 or (415) 614-5640 or fax (415) 614-5641 or e-mail: jpena@catholic-sf.org; Mail or bring ads to Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109; Or by (please include credit card number & expiration date).

COMMERCIAL ADS: 20 words or less $15.00. Extra words 50¢ each. Applies to Businesses,

PRIVATE PARTY ADS: 20 words or less $10.00. Extra words 40¢ each. Applies to Individuals

by telephone, mail, or fax. ONLY VISA or MASTERCARD ACCEPTED.

Services, Real Estate, buying or selling for profit and transportation deales.

PAYMENT: All ads must be paid in advance. Money order, or imprinted checks. Credit Cards

Only: Garage Sales, Help Wanted, Transportation / Vehicles.

NAME CITY METHOD OF PAYMENT

ZIP

❏ CHECK

Classified display ads may be prepaid or billed.

TOTAL ENCLOSED:

ADDRESS PHONE

❏ MONEY ORDER

$

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REFERENCE # leave blank please

RATES: CLASSIFIED DISPLAY $

25 per column inch – 1 time / $20 per col. inch – 2 times

TERMS

We reserve the right to reject or cancel advertising for any reason deemed appropriate. We want our readers to know that it is not always possible to verify promises made by our advertisers.

24

Catholic San Francisco

December 16, 2005

Pope John Paul II, successor are top stories, newsmakers of 2005 WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic editors voted the death of Pope John Paul II as the top religious news story of 2005, with the related story of the election of Pope Benedict XVI coming in second and the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina third.

(CNS PHOTO FROM CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO)

Pope John Paul II blesses pilgrims from the window of his Vatican apartment March 30 in what would be his final public appearance.

The suffering pope, who had led the church for 26 years, tried to speak to the crowd, but words would not come.

Three days later, he died.

More than 100,000 pilgrims were present in St. Peter’s Square.

(CNS PHOTO BY PAUL HARING)

(CNS PHOTO BY GIANCARLO GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO)

The funeral of Pope John Paul II April 8 was attended by kings, queens, prime ministers and presidents -- including U.S. President George W. Bush. In this image, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, blesses the pope's casket with holy water during his funeral Mass. In his homily, Cardinal Ratzinger said that “we can be sure our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us.”

When the editors’ poll was first conducted in 1962, the overwhelming choice for top story was the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Last year, editors chose the controversy surrounding Catholics and politics as the top religious story of the year and Pope John Paul as the top newsmaker.

The day after Christmas 2004, a massive earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra spawned tsunamis that struck southern Asia, killing more than 180,000 people. The world responded with overwhelming generosity, with Catholic relief efforts reaching record levels. In this photo on the Indonesian island of Nias, farmer Thaliia Gulo sits near the remains of his tsunami-destroyed home Jan. 29.

You, me, we.

With your support we will continue to: Visit homes of our neighbors in need Help women and their children overcome domestic violence Feed thousands in our Bay Area dining rooms Clothe the poor and needy Shelter thousands of homeless men and women Help the working poor survive in difficult times Promote restorative justice for all impacted by crime You, me, we. Together we make the Bay Area a better place for all. God bless you this Christmas.

(CNS PHOTO BY ALESSIA GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO)

Pope John Paul, who was chosen as the top newsmaker more often than anyone else in the past 26 years, again took the top spot, followed closely by his successor, Pope Benedict. The evacuees of Hurricane Katrina were third.

The poll was the 44th annual survey of Catholic News Service client newspapers.

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien

Pope Benedict XVI blesses clergy during Mass on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 8.

He was elected the 265th pope on April 19.